Paul Flynn: I Like to Watch
"Cruising is really the last depiction of the golden age of the Clone, the last gay cultural archetype that celebrated sex without consequence – this film gives it a consequence."
Paul Flynn is a writer, author and editor based in London. He began writing at City Life magazine in 1995 and is currently a contributing editor at Perfect magazine. In between, he worked for Pop, i-D, Dazed, Love, Fantastic Man, Attitude, Butt, The Gentlewoman, GQ Style, Grazia and wrote for UK daily and Sunday papers. He is co-director of the communications agency, Cherry, had his first book, Good As You, published in 2018 and was one of the team who wrote the award nominated play Enquirer for the National Theatre of Scotland.
Inspired by Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel of the same name, and real-life murders of gay men in New York in the 1960s and 70s, Cruising follows young cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) as he goes undercover in the city’s underground S&M scene to track a serial killer. Immersed in this secretive world and isolated from his colleagues, Burns begins to feel his identity shift. Released just before the first AIDS cases were reported, the film captures a bygone era in gay life.
WHY I LOVE IT
“Cruising is really the last depiction of the golden age of the Clone, the last gay cultural archetype that celebrated sex without consequence – this film gives it a consequence. There’s a murderer on the loose in the meatpacking district of Manhattan. Body parts are turning up in the East river. An intrepid, hungry young hard-nosed cop, played by Al Pacino is about to learn some crucial life lessons, going undercover in late 70s Manhattan leather bars to track down the killer. His next door neighbour wears a Christopher St vest. The hankie code is explained in a West Village fetish shop by a bored assistant. What’s not to love?”
JUST THE FACT
When Richard Heffner, head of the US filmratings board, first saw the film he declared “There aren’t enough XXXs in the alphabet to rate this movie.”
FIRST TIME I SAW IT
“I’ve seen the film countless times. First was with a boyfriend much smarter than me in his bedsit in my late teens, on VHS, when New York felt about as far away as Mars. My love affair with the film lasted way longer than with him.”
LAST TIME I WATCHED IT
“About three weeks ago. I’d been meaning to watch it since reading Pacino’s autobiography, Sonny Boy, which skirts over his involvement with the film. Several of those involved in the film are uncomfortable about its making. They’re a bit like the New York City cops on screen – prodding an exotic beast, not quite sure whether to fall down on the side of humour or horror. I think that’s a good depiction of the landscape of the time, a gay era I never saw first hand but one that has been evoked so much since.”
JUST THE FACT
Richard Gere was originally cast as the lead and eager to do the film, with Friedkin praising his “strange, ambiguous quality.” However, Al Pacino read the script, wanted the role, and, given his standing after hits like The Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon, was preferred instead.
THE CHARACTER
“Spoiler alert, but I love that the killer turns out to be a Columbia University student doing a PHD in the history of American musical theatre. The details of Cruising are always surprisingly authentic.”
THE OUTFIT
“The whole wardrobe department, overseen by Bette Midler’s (because of course it is) late costume designer Robert DeMora – the less showy Bob Mackie – is fundamentally amazing. The understudies are multitudinous and the club scenes all universally brilliantly shot. Many of the club sequences look like footage from Horse Meat Disco last weekend.Cruisinghas become the de facto fictional art palate for that Tom of Finland look. It is exquisite. The appearance by the actor James Remar, who will later turn up as one of Samantha’s boyfriends inSex and the City, in a pair of olive Y-fronts, grey vest and crucifix is pretty iconic.”
JUST THE FACT
“The early club scene was filmed at The Mineshaft, ‘a members only club for the purpose of extreme S&M.’ The extras are the club’s actual members. The club’s owner was the head of the Gambino crime family and a friend of Friedkin’s. “I used to go to his house and have breakfast with him in his kitchen,” Friedkin recalled. Filming was permitted as long as the movie didn’t touch on the owner’s business. Mineshaft and another club featured in the film, Eagle’s Nest, later barred William Friedkin.”
THE SCENE
“The police entrapment, to try and finger an innocent clone, Skip, a waiter at a Times Square steak restaurant, is fabulous. At one point, the cops tell him to drop his pants and jerk off in front of them, then he’s introduced to a towering confection of a man in a cowboy hat and jockstrap, as a decoy. The tension between the cops’ titillation and repulsion is especially evident here.”
THE DIALOGUE
“The murderer’s first pick-up line is sensational:
‘Where are you from?’
‘Mars.’
‘Terrific, I never made it with a Martian.’”
JUST THE FACT
Some of the murder scenes include subliminal flashes of anal sex. Friedkin said: “I felt that because the murderer used a very sharp edged knife, to kill his victims, that there was a kind of reference to anal intercourse.”
THE SONG
“If anyone has a vinyl copy of the Cruising soundtrack, I would pay hard cash for it. My favourite song is Willy DeVille’s It’s So Easy, which cranks up right after the surprisingly tender fisting scene.”
JUST THE FACT
In 1972, William Friedkin cast Paul Bateson, a radiologist, as a radiologist in The Exorcist. Years later, researching Cruising, Friedkin discovered Bateson was on trial for murdering gay film critic Addison Verrill and had been suspected of killing six more gay men found in rubbish bags in the Hudson - the so-called ‘bag murders’ between 1975 and 1977. Bateson served almost 25 years for killing Verrill, but no charges were brought in the other murders – which remain unsolved.
JUST THE FACT
The classical music heard throughout the film - Boccherini, La Musical Notturna delle Strade di Madrid, Op 30 No 6 - was brought to William Friedkin by Al Pacino. It was one of the actor’s favourite pieces.
WHERE TO WATCH
🇺🇸 United States
New York City
Quad Cinema
Dates & Times:
Friday, June 13: 7:00 PM
Tuesday, June 17: 1:00 PM
Wednesday, June 18: 6:00 PM
Thursday, June 19: 1:00 PM
Program: Part of the Pride on Film series
Booking: quadcinema.com/film/cruising
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL)
Date & Time: Wednesday, June 4, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Event: Reel to Read Movies series
Booking: nypl.org/events/programs/2025/06/04/reel-read-movies-cruising-1980
Los Angeles
Vista Theatre
Dates & Times:
Friday, June 6: Midnight
Saturday, June 7: Midnight
Format: 35mm presentation
Booking: vistatheaterhollywood.com
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
London
The Garden Cinema
Date: June 2025 (specific date to be confirmed)
Booking: thegardencinema.co.uk/film/cruising
🇫🇷 France
Paris
Cinémathèque Française
Date: June 2025 (specific date to be confirmed)
Booking: cinematheque.fr
🇩🇪 Germany
Berlin
Xposed Queer Film Festival
Dates: May 29 – June 1, 2025
Note: While Cruising is not listed, the festival features queer cinema; check their program for updates.
Info: xposedfilmfestival.com/2025
🇪🇸 Spain
Madrid
Cineteca Madrid
Date: June 2025 (specific date to be confirmed)
Booking: cinetecamadrid.com
