更新时间:2020-02-03
他他 • 虎口巡航:[Film Review] Cruising (1980) 7.4/10
Boldly charting the signs of the times of NYC’s gay SM subculture before the Aids pandemic, William Friedkin’s CRUISING returns to the queer territory after his sturdy cinematic adaption of THE BOY IN THE BAND (1970), and Al Pacino, also knuckles down into the precious showcase of LGBTQ presentation after Sidney Lumet’s canonical DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975), this time around, he plays a straight undercover cop Steve Burns, a decoy to lure a homo-killer on the prowl.
Historically, CRUISING comes out at the peak of gay liberation, and it incurred quite a ballyhoo of protestation for its candid if exploitative depiction of an unorthodox lifestyle predominately, provocatively, chronically seeking libido-driven danger, suffering and dissolution, and one must hand it to Friedkin and his team for not shying away from its eye-opening ostentation of a marginalized, often tabooed minority group, coupled with a chromatically heightened scenographic exuberance of the Big Apple’s underworld cityscape, both interior and exterior (iconic leather bars and the cruising location in the nocturnal park), where violence and lust are equally throbbing in the same beat.
A backstabbing killer on the lam (the first victim’s demise is operated with unsettling suspense and piercing dread), CRUISING’s police procedural is a blasé business, with casual sideswipes angling police inaction and brutality (smacked by a naked, thick-set, thong-sported black bruiser in the interrogation room utterly beggars belief), and ultimately, the murderer’s own perverse motive fails to pack a punch (father issue bobs up tentatively, but what makes him tick still eludes us), although Richard Cox squeezes out a chilling intimidation during the fateful encounter, the odor of death is pungently attendant on the palpable sexual impulses.
The analogy between sex and death is a time-honored theme that is explored delectably, tantalizingly and precariously in CRUISING, moreover, Friedkin’s script (loosely based on Gerald Walker’s eponymous novel) also tacitly mines into the less burrowed mentality of a straight man questioning his own sexuality after being introduced to the same-sex sensual surroundings which intrigue his curiosity but also effect his heterosexual potency (Karen Allen as Burns’s clueless girlfriend Nancy is simply a cipher to be sexualized to gauge his bedroom performance). As contentious and avant-garde as the theme sounds, especially being a studio production with a named helmer, the film finally adopts a milder route to fudge the issue it propounds, especially by grafting an open-end denouement that suggests Burns’ own implication and morphing into the variety of a dangerous beast that is a far cry from the average-Joe type he is in the beginning, with a somewhat iffy and inconvenient understatement, does a latent homosexuality turn a good man into a murderous menace to the society?
Pacino, donning a tank top with his not-so-complimenting physique and eyeliner-strengthened brows, is apparent on the wrong side of Burns’s late 20-something age (he is almost 40 at then), albeit he displays extraordinary luminosity out of his fierce gaze and puzzlement-tinged preoccupation. Yet, Friedkin’s script deters going deeper and rebellious into a straight man’s psychosexual oscillation, Burns remains a diligent but dull observer, flinching from any opportunity to get physical in its true sense. Most of the time feigning an apparent persona of youthful plainness, Pacino only lets out his usual fuse-blowing voltage once when confronting the jealous boyfriend of his artsy neighbor Ted Bailey (Scardino), played by a scanty-clad James Remar, still, that actually further complicates the coda, because there is not enough material to attest Burns and Bailey’s fledgling bond.
The long and short of it, though not a legitimate trend-bucker in a groundbreaking scale despite of the potential it falsely projects, CRUISING reflects Friedkin’s sweaty, straight-angled abandon in plumbing into a largely unseen rabbit hole of our society, also for being a gorgeous mood-setter for those who can really relate to the insalubrious but deadly entrancing vibes, not least the different significations of those colorful hankies.
referential entries: Friedkin’s THE BOYS IN THE BAND (1970, 7.8/10); Sidney Lumet’s DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975, 8.4/10)
虎口巡航Cruising(1980)
上映日期：1980-02-08片长：102分钟
主演：阿尔·帕西诺 Al Pacino/保罗·索维诺 Paul Sorvino/凯伦·阿兰 Karen Allen/理查德·考克斯 Richard Cox/唐·斯卡尔蒂诺 Don Scardino/乔·斯皮内尔 Joe Spinell/杰·阿克沃内 Jay Acovone/巴顿·海曼 Barton Heyman/艾伦·米勒 Allan Miller/桑尼格鲁索 Sonny Grosso/艾德·奥尼尔 Ed O'Neill/Michael Aronin/詹姆斯·瑞马尔 James Remar/威廉姆·拉斯 William Russ/迈克·斯塔尔 Mike Starr/Steve Inwood/Keith Prentice/Leland Starnes/里奥·伯梅斯特 Leo Burmester/鲍沃斯·布斯 Powers Boothe/詹姆斯·苏托里乌斯 James Sutorius/Richard Jamieson/吉米·雷·威克斯 Jimmie Ray Weeks/Carmine Stippo/詹姆斯·海登 James Hayden/Robert Carnegie/Sylvia Gassel/Penny Gumeny/Burr DeBenning/Ray Vitte/Dan Sturkie/Linda Gary/Kirsten Baker/Christian Daugherty
导演：威廉·弗莱德金 William Friedkin编剧：威廉·弗莱德金 William Friedkin/Gerald Walker
