Cruising 4K 1980 Ultra HD 2160p

After a series of violent crimes among New York homosexuals, undercover cop Stephen Burns goes undercover to find the killer.

He is both hunter and victim in this criminal underworld. His goal is to track down the killer, but just when you think he's found him, that's when the real mystery begins....

User Review
A mysterious maniac kills homosexuals after having sexual contact with them. When such murders accumulate several, police captain Idelson makes his subordinate Steve Burns an offer he can refuse. He suggests that Burns become a plant duck: infiltrate the queer community and try to identify the Night Ripper. Burns, who looks similar to the victims, does not hesitate to agree. The day after the conversation, he moves to a 'light blue' neighborhood and begins frequenting local gay bars.

Jerry Walker's novel was based on real events and told about a series of high-profile murders of homosexuals in the neighborhoods of New York in the late 1970s. The deeper the hero of the book was immersed in the pederastic subculture, the more significant were the shifts in his psyche: disgust was gradually replaced by loyalty and then attraction to the gay ...

The movie Cruising (a slang word that implies close anal contact) differs markedly from the literary source material and provokes homophobic feelings in the viewer. In Friedkin's interpretation, the world of gays appears as a criminal decadence, a cloaca of scumbag pederasts, a morbid gathering of sadists, a new “crotch hell”! The gays in it are all, as one and the same, extremely obsessed with sex: sweaty male bodies, clad in creaking black leather and cartouches reminiscent of SS caps, abound on the screen.

One had to really dislike the queer community to take on this project. And if the director wanted to create an exceptionally repulsive image of the gay community, he achieved it. Despite the “apologetic” warning at the beginning of the film, which said that these events do not characterize the entire pederast diaspora, but only one segment of it, Cruising caused a furious wave of protests of sex minorities even before the release.

During filming in New York City in the summer of 1979, outraged homosexuals organized several protests and even blocked traffic. By February 1980, these events had spread throughout the country, and when the movie was released, the number of copies was noticeably less than expected....

Having rapidly achieved recognition after the release of The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), Friedkin also quickly began to dive downward. Cruising came just at the height of his burgeoning career: the director was full of vigor and energy, but the films were already hitting past the box office and possible regalia. And yet, by the end of the 1970s, the authority of the Hollywood maestro was not yet completely compromised. Therefore, Friedkin did not have great difficulty persuading Pacino, who, despite his 39-year-old age, was willing to risk and take on roles that do not guarantee applause.

This was his second attempt to reincarnate in gay. But if in “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), this motive was set nominally, and the actor did not have to portray “nothing like that,” this time it was much cooler. Pacino, already in full taste of stellar fame, played a junior police officer who kosits under the blue and under a false name infiltrates the circle of New York pederasts. This plot model will partly repeat itself nine years later in the correctly oriented thriller “Sea of Love”, where Pacino's character will again play the role of an undercover cop.

We must admit, Friedkin did everything possible not to frame the actor and save his reputation: all the sensitive scenes of the script in the movie were cleverly mixed. In the bar where the gays organize their brutal orgies, Pacino mostly remains an observer. Only once does he accept an offer and dance at a pioneering distance from his partner, and that's while 120 days of sodomy is going on around him. Once, however, you can observe Alik naked, but only for one second.

However, all these “protective measures”, in the end, will turn against the plot denouement, which will make the events ambiguous and ambiguously unclear.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (89.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
#English: FLAC 2.0
#English:Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with director William Friedkin)
#English:Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with director William Friedkin moderated by critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode)
#English:Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with original musicians involved with the soundtrack)

Info Subtitles