The first time I saw William Friedkin’s 1980 gay crime thriller “Cruising” may have been decades ago, but I will never forget how surprised I was that a movie like that was made in the 1970s.
“Cruising” stars Al Pacino as a straight New York City police officer who goes undercover in the gay leather community to try and find a serial killer who picks up men in bars before murdering them.
A film centered on and graphically depicting the gay leather community – or any part of the LGBTQ community for that matter — was unheard of during this time.
I’d later learn that “Cruising” received immediate backlash from gay rights activists when the script was leaked to and reported on by Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell. Activists argued that the movie was exploitative and unfairly depicted the gay community as oversexed, depraved and violent. While filming on the streets of New York in 1979, protestors continually disrupted production. When “Cruising” was released, it was a critical and box office failure.
“Cruising” was inspired by a series of murders in New York City in the 1970s. At the time, law enforcement officials believed there may have been a serial killer targeting gay men when body parts of six unidentified men and clothing linked to a local leather shop were discovered wrapped in trash bags in the Hudson River.
