In 1980, a movie called Cruising came out and caused a firestorm. It starred Al Pacino as a New York detective who goes undercover as a gay man in the leather district in order to find a serial killer. It was controversial because it was vile and sordid. It took a lot of negative stereotypes about gay men and went into overdrive, particularly the one about realizing that you're gay causes you to become a killer. Needless to say it caused extensive protests even while being made and subsequently bombed at the box office.
I've seen it and thought it was disgusting. But once I showed a clip of it to a younger gay man - as in grew up in the post Ellen DeGeneres comes out/ Will and Grace world. He didn't find it to be as nauseous as I did. And that's the subject of this blog post. I have included the trailer and a full scene (NSFW) of Cruising as well as interviews with protestors. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Feel free to respond in the comments section
