Cruising The Rewatchables
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Cruising

Half-Assed Internet Research

Origins; protests; missing footage; Pacino choices; budget; soundtrack; production; disclaimer

In the discussion (24)
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:43Read transcript
  • Protests reportedly ruined sound and contributed to multiple killer voices; around 40 minutes of explicit club footage were removed, described by Friedkin as pornography.
  • The film derives from Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel, which Friedkin disliked; unsolved leather-bar murders, Village Voice articles and undercover officer Randy Jorgensen helped motivate his interest.
  • Friedkin’s retrospective explanation frames the film as a murder mystery in an S&M setting rather than an anti-gay statement, with the timing amid gay liberation and AIDS shaping its reception.
  • The city’s 1970s seediness is recalled through the blackout and Times Square; critic Nathan Lee’s enthusiastic reappraisal is placed uncertainly in the 2000 s or 2010 s.
  • Pacino’s dramatic-star run precedes reported refusals of Han Solo, Close Encounters, Apocalypse Now and Kramer vs. Kramer; he wanted Slap Shot but his inability to skate reportedly cost him the role.
  • Friedkin reportedly criticized Pacino’s eloquence, lateness and lack of creative ideas; the onscreen performance is defended against that judgment.
  • The club participant reacting to the lubricated arm is identified as Bruno Kirby, surprising the others; the cast also prompts recognition of Mike Starr, William Russ, Powers Boothe and Ed O’Neill.
  • The reported budget is 11 million dollars and gross 19.8 million, characterized as a hit.
  • Karina Longworth’s podcast is cited for an interpretation of erotic thrillers partly as AIDS allegories, not solely reducible to that reading.
  • A cited interpretation connects the captain’s limp to compromised masculinity; the author is not remembered and the reading remains interpretive.
  • The novel’s protagonist is described as racist, unlike the film’s more valuable transformative journey.
  • The soundtrack discussion lists Willy DeVille with “the moment” and “Pulling My String,” the Cripples, John Hiatt’s “Spy Boy,” Madelynn von Ritz, the Germs’ “Lion’s Share” and Rough Trade; only one intended Germs song was used.
  • Mutiny’s “Lump” is identified as the opening song and the only funk track; another female-sung disco-tinged track is characterized as fundamentally rock.
  • The earlier uncertain collaborator name is corrected to Travis Mathews in the discussion of Interior. Leather Bar.
  • The missing explicit footage reportedly no longer exists, having been destroyed in fires according to Friedkin.
  • Friedkin reportedly worked with Mafia members because they owned many of the city’s gay bars.
  • The morgue sequence is reported as the first film given permission to shoot there; medical examiner Michael Baden allegedly lost his job over the decision before later television fame.
  • Karen Allen reportedly never received the complete script because her character was meant not to know what Burns was doing; the implications for her final costume scene are questioned.
  • Journalist Arthur Bell is identified as the early organizer of opposition.
  • A protest reportedly drew 1000 marchers through the East Village, and Bell’s Village Voice articles are recommended.
  • The Mineshaft refused filming; Friedkin reportedly submitted the initially X-rated film 50 times and removed 40 minutes, inconsistently claiming the cuts either did not affect the story or obscured Burns as a possible killer.
  • Writer John Rechy reportedly persuaded Friedkin to remove a gay-liberation slogan from the opening body-recovery scene because it could be misread.
  • An initial disclaimer disavowing judgment of gay life is recalled as controversial, though absent from the current viewing and not quoted exactly.
  • The explicit club footage reportedly used actual patrons and leather-scene participants rather than primarily actors.