Cruising (1980)

this ep is a banger! no cap

tmcms

Hell yeah

Will See

Classic EP

The soundtrack is great. Juxtaposition of sleazy rawk in the gay club scenes, delicate classical in the hetero love scenes, and atmospheric jazz in between. Audio storytelling! No ZZ Top, as far as I can tell. Love to teh Action Boyz. Love to Gabrus!

Here is a link to directors commentary if anyone is interested https://open.spotify.com/episode/0yDIP0JG6vyb2KDQj3Zd11?si=gyl_qPxVTBWcAw3yH3DljA

The guy who directed weekend at bernie’s also directed wake in fright. Wake in fright is exceptionally good.

Brendan Crowley

It really sounded that way to me as well. Punt it to the Wolves!

william o'connor

Noticed on this rewatch, there is a thoroughly creepy "who's here?" at the very end of the shot showing the exterior when the cops are about to bust in on Pacino and the wrong guy. Super quick at the tail end of the radio interference

Ant

“There’s been some… family problems. But I don’t wanna bore you with those.” “Thanks.”

Dirk Dribbler

Love Gabrus reading “gay updates” like he’s getting messages through the enigma machine

David

If I'm not wrong, that's Spinell cruising Pacino in The Eagle (just before "Watersports" comes up).

Shmomar

I was thinking there could be another horse name Mr. Rodgers, but they definitely do an impression of Mr. Ed.

Eddie Arafat

Did they plow past Stanger trying to say his dad sent him a dick pic?

Donatello’s Big Dong

If Friedkin bought a third share of Celtics for $1m back then, it would be valued at $1.33B today. Celts current value is $4B

Jeff

The horse is Mr Ed right? Not Mr Rodgers. Am I crazy?

Smell The Glove

My favorite author. I think about his books daily. Child Of God, The Crossing, No Country, they're all good.

Dustin

He had a long one but still a sad day. Amazing writer.

Eugenio Triana

Watched contact 3 times before the end of my catholic schooling. It must have been the chaplains copy

Raw Dog McQuade

I went into this movie completely blind last week and holy shit, I really loved it. Was surprised to see such mixed reviews after the fact too, as the boyz said the ambiguity was great.

Wadi

Has anyone seen the John Benjamin Has a Van? Think there’s an episode referencing this movie. The one we're he becomes a wereJew and goes cruising.

Alex Hindley

Cormac McCarthy died. Check out Blood Meridian and Suttree, if you've never read him.

Michael Pemulis

Catechumenates fuming over that pronunciation

Killian Walsh

I saw Friedkin do a Q&A after a Cruising screening last year and every single thing he said was pretty much captured here by Ben except when someone asked what he thought of the late Joe Spinell and he went "WHO THE FUCK IS JOE SPINELL"

Devon Gravert

Gabrus had the Jackalone teacher

Matt Brown

I don’t think the link worked but it’s easy to find. And a great listen!

https://youtu.be/yLEN7WsAQMQ The Friedkin Connection audio book is free on YouTube.

The ending scene where Pacino faces off with the killer is not shot in Central Park but actually in riverside park in west Harlem near Columbia university. I know because I used to live in this area and immediately recognized the location. A very underrated film location in Manhattan. With so many movies set in nyc it becomes repetitive seeing the same locations over and over. But Friedkin always shows the parts of the city that you don’t automatically associate with nyc. He did the same thing in French connection. Always interested to see parts of the city that arent Central Park, Times Square, west village, etc on film. St. Clair Stairs https://maps.app.goo.gl/NgNvRZSJbg5jwuSy7?g_st=ic

Big Stepper

Yes definitely do Weekend at Bernie's

Frank Morris

I love Contact. My dad showed it to me when I was like 6 and Jake Busey’s face before he detonates his bomb is scarred in my memory, that part scared the crap out of me.

John

Gotta change it when they arrive in NY like Phil Leatardo from Sopranos

bloodflart

Happy to see the return of the 3+ hour episode!! Dr Reverse-Runtime is happy

LongOnions

His real name was Joseph J. Spagnuolo, even wilder than the other option

Gregory Anderson

As a queer janitor I’m happy to report that there is no pre or post gay mustache era, it’s just one unbroken stretch of dudes with mustaches and various colored handkerchiefs

oh hey hi

Spinelli fits him

DartSpieg

I love that the boyz say Spinelli, Spinnel sounds like shit, I always assumed it was one of those things people used to do taking a vowel off their last name to sound less ethnic

Jon Smith

So Roger’s drops the kayfabe and comes clean about the Roge Tapes and then expects me to believe he had a teacher with a name pronounced ‘Jackalone’?! Fool me once Ben…

Movie Donkey

Absolutely love that Joe Spinell has been coming up so much, one of my fave actors, but just a heads up that there is no "i" at the end of his name, haha

Gregory Anderson

re: spills. In my 20’s I lived with a bunch of artists/musicians, these skinny white dudes into MC5 and T Rex, big curly hair and bell bottoms. We were out looking at a new place with this real estate lady to upgrade out of our current shithole and we stopped at a 7 eleven or somethin, one guy got a big gulp sized red Hawaiian Punch. First and only place we look at we’re down in this basement room with white carpet and I don’t know if it just slipped out of his hand or somebody bumped him(there were a lot of us) but the whole huge Hawaiian Punch went down, lid flew off instantly big red explosion ..think we just bailed leaving the real estate lady to deal with the ruined carpet, still feel bad about it

Jon Smith

When they said "everybody knows" during the course of the conversation, and then started singing the Leonard Cohen song, I says to myself, "I think that this must be the place."

David Bauer

Really digging the Rodge Tapes. So funny

Jeffy

That first murder scene is very sexy. Surprised nobody said it on the show.

Slurp

I thought SNL came up with the “Cork Soaker” joke until I heard the dirty patrol cops use it.

David

This music is the real Killer. Not enough money for Judas Priest?

Hammerthrust Von Sexron

Also finding out this ep that the Rodge Tapes were parody. Gotta relisten to appreciate them in their new light

The original host of Blues Clues was also named Steve Burns.

Jenn

There's a French movie called Knife + Heart and it's basically a Crusing/Euro Giallo homage that takes place in the French gay porn world of the early 80s. It rocks.

DartSpieg

Robert Davitas - Kiefer Sutherland

JarredPalmer

When I used to fix hydraulics on commercial fishing boats a lot of the dudes were getting high on hits of Dust Off constantly because its legal, you can buy it at a store and there is no way to test for it. I was usually dockside but I can't imagine being on the deck trying to haul pots or something with a deckhand who is dusted.

Sneakaboard

should've sent a poet

Gabrus, Rodgers, and Stanger

Luckily he got busted before injuring himself.

Gil Slits

How many fingers did he have left?

Hammerthrust Von Sexron

Sticking in a knife in a car door is a metaphor for stopping giant fans though.

Bengt Alexsander

I used to work at a lumber mill with a saw operator who would head off into the woods a bunch to huff paint thinner. Oh, and Stanger's Autofocus joke: A+

Gil Slits

Absolutely it does.

Paul

Does Aliens count? Ripley uses the gun to prop open the waterwheel looking thing to try and get to Newt before the Xenomorphs do. Or am I miss remembering that?

Stanger's Stache

ironically, not the The Fan (1996)

Data Janitor

I love this podcast.

Leelu Baloo

Contact Bro checking in

Mitch Kapa

I think this is the third movie on ABZ that features a man stopping fan blades so he can get through the fan: 1) Die Hard 2) Daylight 3) Cruising LMFAO

Paul

I appreciated that Rodgers took the time to get all Anarchist’s Cookbook on that huffing recipe.

David D.

Sorry Hammerthrust- I love David Simon, I love Maggie Gyllenhaal, and I love porn ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ryan Stanger

I keep forgetting Roge Tapes is a real thing and not just a joke

Sneakaboard

Still amazed that SCTV got away with this https://youtu.be/U2-zyD48qCg

Canadian Day Player

Question about the St James place murder. When the guy goes down on killer the scene cuts to the floor where they both have only boots on and they’re kicking away the wrestling magazines. Is that a thing where they undress then put boots back on?

Jeff

That steak looked so fuckin good

bloodflart

The Roge Tapes are brilliant, love how there are recurring actors in the movies. But the first time I listened I was completely fooled and searching the internet for the movie.

Keith Jarrett

All the Hackman/Pacino talk had me thinking about Scarecrow and how those guys had so much of a different method to their work that they respectfully stayed out of each other's way

Schifrin's List

listened to the Two Old Queens episode after watching the movie and they cleared it up/blew my mind by saying they cast different actors as the killer!

bloodflart

we shut down for the reddit API changes but you can still search for it

bloodflart

Someone was sharing it over on r/actionboyz a couple of months ago.

william o'connor

a real party-size episode

Data Janitor

Been looking for a that audiobook link

will falzone

man, these Daikinis always start my week off right.

Burglekutt

Asked chatGPT to explain the ending for me to make sure I got it all but it just randomly made up 3 totally different endings. Had to check old faithful Wikipedia to make sure I didn't accidentally watch a directors cut or something

bloodflart

Yeah, don’t oversell the Deuce.

Hammerthrust Von Sexron

Friedkin was known for giving his camera operators a lot of autonomy and often times their first big break. On “To Live and Die in LA” he hired Bob Yeoman to operate who was a tv news cameraman with no feature film or 35mm experience. He went on to become a world renown Dp…most famous for shooting all of Wes Anderson’s films.

Pod Ween Satan

Literally re-subscribed the Patreon when y’all announced this lol

Erin Katalinic

Ben’s Friedkin impression is world class. Up there with Trump and Bronson. Would love to have a time machine and get Ben up there auditioning for SNL with those characters.

Pod Ween Satan

also Gabrus: The best thing about Letterboxd isn't posting reviews and leaving comments for eachother. It's that, after you've curated your feed, you can click on any movie and instantly see what the 12 people whose opinion you give a shit about thought of it.

Dark Angel Of The Year

3hr21mins? Fuck. Yes.

Bring me the Head of Warren Oates

Think the first act of Dumb and Dumber is weak but the rest hilarious

Bobby Nitro

We screened Irréversible yesterday, and rewatching both it's hilarious how Friedkin and Noé portray the same kind of club 20 years apart. The 80s ones seem pretty chill as long as you don't show up with a mohawk on precinct night.

Dark Angel Of The Year

Nice over 3 hours will get me through the rest of this shift

Christopher Myers