In the discussion (18)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:25Read transcript
- The ambiguous mirror ending and return to the harbor are admired, including the possibility of continuing murders; the editing problems may have helped create its ambiguity.
- The assignment scene is praised for Burns readily volunteering rather than resisting, with promotion seeming secondary; the captain opens by bluntly asking about sexual experience with men.
- The dancing sequence is praised as an unusually uninhibited Pacino moment, interpreted as release and a metaphorical sexual experience rather than mere undercover work.
- The precinct-night rejection is admired for the irony of an actual undercover cop failing to look or act sufficiently like a fetishized cop.
- Sorvino’s briefing is a scene candidate, using victim photographs that resemble Burns to explain the undercover assignment.
- The first gay-bar visit and Burns’s tour of the Ramrod and Wolf’s Den establish how fully the film enters this world.
- Powers Boothe explaining the hanky code is a favorite; Burns promises to think about it and returns with a yellow hanky before being told watching is insufficient.
- Burns lifting weights after the hanky-code encounter is interpreted as going beyond a purely undercover commitment.
- The dressmaker murder sequence, including the cinema trip, is praised as a miniature Hitchcock film.
- Burns telling the captain he cannot handle what is happening is a favorite; the captain’s indifference highlights the lack of concern for him as a person.
- The yearbook identification of Stuart is enjoyed as hands-on mystery solving.
- Burns tailing Stuart and confronting him at the park benches is praised as an old-fashioned showdown, despite possible police misconduct.
- The ending with Karen Allen wearing the clothes is admired for leaving the next encounter unknowable; Burns hearing club music during sex suggests mental distance from his girlfriend.
- The interrogation is considered terrifying and bracing rather than rewatchable or camp.
- The nearly naked cowboy-hatted enforcer is interpreted as an S&M embodiment used by police to abuse and coerce suspects.
- Burns asking why he was hit is a favorite non-dancing Pacino reaction, destabilizing what undercover realism means.
- Dancing receives repeated final selections, while another preference favors the showdown through hospital and especially the ending.
- The final shaving and residual cream are interpreted as concealment and a sexual visual metaphor, with agreement on that reading.