Cruising

[soundchaser]

Though the original commentary was dropped, a redone version with Friedkin involved may be added to this release, if Kermode's tweet here is anything to go by.

[Finch]

Friedkin solo would have been a total timewaster so it's good that he has someone prompting him and engage with him, especially Kermode.

[Big Ben]

Friedkin solo would have been a total timewaster so it's good that he has someone prompting him and engage with him, especially Kermode.

Agreed, especially because they're good friends and I hope that will allow for a more interesting dynamic. Hopefully they get deep into everything.

[goblinfootballs]

Though the original commentary was dropped, a redone version with Friedkin involved may be added to this release, if Kermode's tweet here is anything to go by.

Arrow updated specs yesterday to include such a commentary:

Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, supervised and approved by writer-director William Friedkin
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Newly remastered 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio supervised by William Friedkin
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with William Friedkin and critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode
Archival audio commentary by William Friedkin
The History of Cruising – archival featurette looking at the film’s origins and production
Exorcising Cruising – archival featurette looking at the controversy surrounding the film and its enduring legacy
Original Theatrical Trailer

[_shadow_]

Mondo Digital

It's unblued itself!

[DRW.mov]

Feel free to crucify me (and yes I’ve seen this projected on 35mm) but I kinda prefer the bluer color timing.

[_shadow_]

There seems to be a decided lack of fine detail for a 4K scan from the original negative.

[tenia]

Looks like it will be even less of the ultimate release this should have been. Reports are that the picture has been DNRed, the 5.1 soundtrack tempered with (in some cases to add sound effects) and that the 2.0 track is a downmix of this newly modified track.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I have the release and can say the transfer does look very smooth, and glazed out in some parts, but otherwise a million times better than the previous release. 5.1 tampering is inevitable with Friedkin. It's what he does. I still find the added gunshot to the end of Sorcerer to be very frustrating when compared to the original version.

[_shadow_]

Do both sound mixes omit the sound of approaching footsteps/jangling chains that typically played over the last closeup of Pacino and was removed for the blue edition?

[soundchaser]

William Friedkin has some harsh words for...widescreen.

[domino harvey]

He’s confusing shooting anamorphic, which is ‘Scope, with anamorphic-enhanced transfers of his film (ie 16X9) on home media, for anyone trying to figure out how he could make this blunder. That a director doesn’t know what this means in a DVD/Blu-Ray listing is... odd

[Big Ben]

He’s confusing shooting anamorphic, which is ‘Scope, with anamorphic-enhanced transfers of his film (ie 16X9) on home media, for anyone trying to figure out how he could make this blunder. That a director doesn’t know what this means in a DVD/Blu-Ray listing is... odd

Do you follow him on Twitter? He's always been strangely incoherent (In my opinion) online, to the point Mark Kermode asked once if he was physically okay. It's weird because he's always so well spoken in filmed interviews.

[domino harvey]

I don’t, but a similar thought crossed my mind. Some people just write and hit send without reading what they typed or thinking twice, I imagine that’s probably the best case scenario here

[David M.]

He’s confusing shooting anamorphic, which is ‘Scope, with anamorphic-enhanced transfers of his film (ie 16X9) on home media, for anyone trying to figure out how he could make this blunder. That a director doesn’t know what this means in a DVD/Blu-Ray listing is... odd

If I recall correctly, on a podcast he revealed that he thinks the color fades from old video tapes. I don’t think he fully understands video.

[nitin]

Is that why he faded the colour out himself from The French Connection blu ray?

[HJackson]

Do you follow him on Twitter? He's always been strangely incoherent (In my opinion) online, to the point Mark Kermode asked once if he was physically okay. It's weird because he's always so well spoken in filmed interviews.

He says some crazy shit in person too. There’s an interview that’s always stuck in my head where he explains his admiration for Birth of a Nation by describing Griffiths’ contribution to film grammar (so far so good) and then breaks into a small rant about how you’re not allowed to justify the Ku Klux Klan in our “politically correct society” and that the film is really about black crime.

[beamish14]

Friedkin is definitely a nut beyond his bizarre revisionism and preference for DVDs over 35mm prints. This interview with screenwriter Caroline Thompson about working with him on a proposed adaptation of her 1984 novel FIRST BORN is incredible.

[Big Ben]

Do you follow him on Twitter? He's always been strangely incoherent (In my opinion) online, to the point Mark Kermode asked once if he was physically okay. It's weird because he's always so well spoken in filmed interviews.

He says some crazy shit in person too. There’s an interview that’s always stuck in my head where he explains his admiration for Birth of a Nation by describing Griffiths’ contribution to film grammar (so far so good) and then breaks into a small rant about how you’re not allowed to justify the Ku Klux Klan in our “politically correct society” and that the film is really about black crime.

Yes I'm familiar with the interview in question. He also goes into his opinion on black crime which he feels was the justification for Southern Whites to create the Ku Klux Klan. I have no idea how the hell he arrived at his completely asinine conclusions about the Klan but he really could not be less informed about it. And then in the same God damn interview (Of course!) he goes on to champion Godard. What a pivot. For those who want see Friedkin go full gonzo here is the interview.

I suppose thinking about this now I think it makes sense that he made a film like Cruising which has always felt really tone deaf in my opinion. I realize I'm way out the loop being born when I was but I can't help but feel being born in the nineties really insulated me from the realities of the HIV/AIDS crisis and all the ensuing disinformation, homophobia and sense of loss that the LGBT community felt at the time.

[R0lf]

I suppose thinking about this now I think it makes sense that he made a film like Cruising which has always felt really tone deaf in my opinion. I realize I'm way out the loop being born when I was but I can't help but feel being born in the nineties really insulated me from the realities of the HIV/AIDS crisis and all the ensuing disinformation, homophobia and sense of loss that the LGBT community felt at the time.

CRUISING hit a year before AIDS was being medically reported. And as far as the protests during shooting of the film go there is also the counter story that they were drummed up by assimilationist anti-BDSM queens who didn't want *that* kind of gay on screen. There is a great write up on the scene at the time and the making of CRUISING here: http://www.jackfritscher.com/PDF/Drumme ... 8_PWeb.pdf

[MichaelB]

Yes, it's impossible to watch it now without thinking of what was just around the corner, but this wouldn't have been apparent back in 1980. Even the acronym "AIDS" wouldn't be coined for a couple of years (July 1982, with its first official use/endorsement by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that September, more than two and a half years after the film came out).

And it's also worth recalling that this project had a very long gestation - back in 1973, producer Philip D'Antoni (then fresh off the unexpected Oscar triumph of The French Connection) developed it with Steven Spielberg as the latter's directorial debut. I forget why it collapsed, but it wasn't Spielberg's fault, and D'Antoni was so impressed with what he'd done that he recommended him to his former production head at Fox, Richard D. Zanuck. Given D'Antoni's track record, Zanuck took him seriously... and the rest is history.

[Big Ben]

CRUISING hit a year before AIDS was being medically reported. And as far as the protests during shooting of the film go there is also the counter story that they were drummed up by assimilationist anti-BDSM queens who didn't want *that* kind of gay on screen. There is a great write up on the scene at the time and the making of CRUISING here: http://www.jackfritscher.com/PDF/Drumme ... 8_PWeb.pdf

Thank you for posting this. My only real experience with oral history around this time came from David Ehrenstein who really, really, really doesn't like Cruising. I understand his sentiments about the matter very clearly but he really never insinuated that there was more to the story. Naturally people are going to have strong opinions on this entire ordeal, not least the gay community. The most sobering thing about the conversation for me was David's lamentation of how much chaos HIV had really caused, with him explaining to me how much (And I'm paraphrasing here) "didn't exist anymore". It's nice to have a longer second opinion.

And it's also worth recalling that this project had a very long gestation - back in 1973, producer Philip D'Antoni (then fresh off the unexpected Oscar triumph of The French Connection) developed it with Steven Spielberg as the latter's directorial debut. I forget why it collapsed, but it wasn't Spielberg's fault, and D'Antoni was so impressed with what he'd done that he recommended him to his former production head at Fox, Richard D. Zanuck. Given D'Antoni's track record, Zanuck took him seriously... and the rest is history.

It's also to my understanding that Cruising was plagued by various productions issues and that in turn had an effect on everything that went into the film itself. I won't deny that parts of Cruising are really well made but I've always felt the overall product is so muddy I was really unsure just what Friedkin was communicating. I know that the book (Obviously) goes deeper into motivations and so forth but Cruising has always left a bizarre aftertaste in my mouth. I'm obviously at a perceptual disadvantage though for reasons I've state above but so much of the content in Cruising has always appeared to me to be a product of it's time, both in it's aloofness and apparent (Although I'm not convinced outwardly malicious) misconceptions about the gay community. Not that these things still don't impact the LGBT community today mind you but the film feels so late seventies early eighties. It exists in a state right before a time of great strife for so many people and I just can't view it outside of all that due to my place in the world.

[cdnchris]

In the commentary the two get a little into his "revisionism" and Kermode mentions a shot he is sure is missing and Friedkin says he's unsure of what is talking about. They also talk about the colors and Friedkin explains what he was trying to do with the timing previously but took it out because he now feels it was, basically, pointless.

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver

[colinr0380]

I think Cruising is a fascinating film (and will never make me pick up a Party Size back of anything again without a brief flashback!) but it inevitably is a straight man's view of the 'gay world' (as much as say the opening scene of Irrreversible is), explaining it to his presumably straight (and staid) as he is audience. That perhaps causes some of the frustration with it, and its prominence at the time and since, but going into it with that knowledge of how the film is approaching its subject and adjusting expectations accordingly it is still very entertaining.

The great AIDS-themed film that has almost entirely fallen into obscurity is the 1993 Canadian film Zero Patience, which instead of treating the subject like a sober, distressing drama instead goes off into fantastical dimensions and irreverent musical numbers to express its concerns about how the disease was treated.