Now the film is hoping for a second life - it is out on DVD after a re-release in theaters in a handful of major cities, and is being heavily touted by director William Friedkin, of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” fame.
It was a box office flop but drew protests from gay groups, instead of the expected support, and its star, Al Pacino, who plays a straight cop investigating the murders by posing as a gay man, seldom talks about it. Twenty-seven years later, the Reagan administration has come and gone, leaving a mixed legacy, and porn films of almost every stripe are easily available.īut “Cruising,” about a serial killer haunting New York gay bars and S&M joints, seems to have vanished in the intervening years. Conservative Ronald Reagan was elected president strongly supporting family values, while at the box office “Cruising” hoped to lure mainstream audiences into seeing a movie featuring graphic gay sex. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - America in 1980 was a culture confronting itself.
