FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE William Friedkin - Cruising 

The film leaves the most important question unanswered (and a bit disappointed): How does the New York cop (Al Pacino) really stand about homosexuality? Does Friedkin lack the courage to answer this question in the film? Or did I miss something? Is he perhaps even involved? Who is in truth the murderer? Cruising doesn't tell us that. Friedkin's film is controversial. He dives into the New York S&M gay scene and is accused of misrepresenting their lives. It almost seems as if the discussion about the film has displaced the open questions Cruising doesn't dare to answer. As a crime thriller Cruising has gotten mightily confused; a chaos! Or is it chaotic because Friedkin simply didn't dare to clearly assign Pacino's character to the S&M scene? How can we understand the last scene when the cop's girlfriend covers his leather gap and the canvas fades black? But at least: Friedkin's film looks outstandingly visualized, holds out a high tension from the very beginning and explores an alien milieu for us. That must be enough.