Cruising (18) + intro

William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) is a gritty thriller starring Al Pacino as a rookie cop undercover in NYC's underground gay leather scene to catch a serial killer. With its grimy visuals, pulsating hardcore punk soundtrack and a magnetic performance from Pacino at its centre, Cruising begins as a tense slasher and unfolds into an ambiguous study of sexual identity in doubt.

The production and release of Cruising garnered protests from the gay community, who accused the film of reinforcing harmful stereotypes of gay men as dangerous and deviant. In its afterlife however, Cruising is being reappraised as a sincere attempt to capture a very real underground scene defined by unbridled male sexuality and, uniquely, doing so just before the HIV/AIDS crisis. Come and see for yourself.