CRUISING (1980)

Desire and danger share the same address...

A serial killer weaves through the shadows of the leather bars and cruising grounds of downtown Manhattan. A 'young', handsome, expendable cop called Steve Burns (Al Pacino) is sent to go undercover and draw him out. What he could not forsee, is how the deeper he goes, the less certain he becomes of who he is.

Controversial on release and banned in several countries, the filming of Cruising was picketed by gay rights activists who feared — not without reason — how it might be used to further homophobic rhetoric. Decades later it has been reclaimed as something stranger and more interesting than its roriginal contraversy suggests: not just a capsule of pre-AIDS gay leather culture, but a film about it's seductive pull, the permeability of identity, and a city that contains whole subcultures in its shadows.

CW: Violence, homophobia, sexual content

Part of our season MEAT RACK: The Underworlds of NYC.

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Host or Publisher Paraphysis Cinema