bironic

I finally got around to watching Cruising (1980, Al Pacino), the "disturbed gay serial killer stalks NYC's S&M scene in the late '70s" movie that, if I recall correctly, generated an ambivalent reaction among the people interviewed in The Celluloid Closet (which is where I first heard of the film) because it's at once exploitative, voyeuristic, sensationalized, misrepresentative, stereotyped, seductive and revealing for the ways in which it portrays an S&M leather subculture that most audience members of the time wouldn't have known about. I remember one gay man saying in the interview that it was the first time he'd seen anything like modern gay nightlife on the big screen, even if it wasn't the most common one. Another man, or maybe it was the same one, pointed out the inflammatory issues the film raised for conflating gayness with hard kink with murder and mental illness and depravity.

Some film critic quotes for context:

Apollo Guide: "Was it insensitive to make this film when it stood to represent the gay subculture to mainstream America? Yes. Is it a great film? No. But it is a fascinating relic."
AfterElton: "Is it offensive? Yes and no. It's insensitive, certainly. And I wouldn't want my mother watching it, lest she think I've been in a sling in the meatpacking district for most of my adult life."
Village Voice: "Cruising is a mediocre thriller but an amazing time capsule -- a heady, horny flashback to the last gasp of full-blown sexual abandon, and easily the most graphic depiction of gay sex ever seen in a mainstream movie."
Salon: "No one would get away with it now, or even try."

It was an interesting watch. Definitely remarkable for the amount of kink displayed on screen in a Hollywood film. Unfortunately predictable in that most of the kink was portrayed as weird and abnormal. At least, until Pacino's character, a cop playing out that fandom favorite plot of going undercover in the S&M club scene (I wonder if that cliché stemmed from this movie?), started showing signs of wanting to experience some of those kinks himself. They never went there explicitly, maybe because the producers thought they would lose their straight/conservative viewers who identified with macho "never-been-porked" Pacino, although he did ask one suspect to tie him up, but strong hints were there in his gaze, in the way he started wearing leather cuffs while in bed with his wife and staring off into the distance right before he orgasmed, in the way he hesitated longer as the movie went on whenever a guy would check him out or proposition him, stuff like that. Still, hard to say if, especially when it first came out (ha), Pacino being seduced into sexual encounters with men and even learning to treat gay men as real people in day-to-day conversation was meant to feel dangerous or attractive. It was a confused movie in the last third, but I'd like to think it implied that Pacino would never be able to shake what he learned about himself while he was undercover.

Not to compound the exploitation here, but Cruising would have been perfect for that Kink Bingo "all you can kink" mini-challenge, and if it's okay with you I'm going to share a whole bunch of screen shots that prove it.

Bingo-defined kinks portrayed include: anonymity, authority figures, begging, bites/bruises, blades, bloodplay, bodies and body parts, body alteration/injury, bondage, collars, consent play, crossdressing, danger, domestic/tradesman kink, dressup, drugs/aphrodisiacs, exhibitionism, exposure, fisting/stretching, food, foot/shoe fetish, gags, gangbang, gender play, guns, humiliation, in public, leather/latex/rubber, masters doms slaves & subs, medical kink, mirrors and doubles, nippleplay/tit torture, oral fixation, orgies and decadence, pervertibles, pictures, roleplay, sensory deprivation, service, sex toys, shaving/depilation, smacking/slapping, subspace/headspace, suspension, uniforms/military fetish, vanilla kink, vehicular, voyeurism, washing/cleaning, watersports, whipping/flogging, worship.

Note: A few of the pictures can be interpreted as non-consensual. You may not want to click through if that will bother you.

56 pix, more or less in alphabetical order:

Anonymity/in public

Blood play

Body modification, mirrors

Body modification, voyeurism

Bondage

Bruises

Consent play, danger, begging

Dressup

Dressup – Pacino's wife (Karen Allen) tries on some of the clothes he's been bringing home from his undercover work

Drugs (he's snorting something), mirrors, voyeurism. Also, there is a huge dildo in that suitcase.

Headspace – Pacino's thinking about the club he just went to while he's in bed with his wife

Fisting

Fisting, suspension

Suspension

Food, pervertible (the steak knife is used for knifeplay elsewhere)

Gags, drugs (the dance partner stuffs a soaked handkerchief into Pacino's mouth)

Orgies/decadence

Genderplay

Guns!

Uniforms everywhere in this movie

Humiliation, exposure

Smacking/slapping

Blades, danger

Blades, nippleplay/tit torture

Leather, anonymity

Leather, sensory deprivation

Leather. Plus, I don't know, I really liked these two guys even though they were only on screen for a few seconds during a pan. They felt legit. I bet they were among the NYC scene-goers who were invited to populate the film.