Posts tagged william friedkin

The Immortals

THE BOYS IN THE BAND

USA, 1970
Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Kenneth Nelson, Peter White, Leonard Frey

Review by Gary Morris

If William Friedkin’s grim gay thriller Cruising (1980) continues to send some queens, leather and otherwise, into seizures, The Boys in the Band (1970), by the same director, has taken on the aura of a sacred text of modern queerdom. And rightly so. This scathing but ultimately sympathetic group portrait of a gay birthday party that virtually self-destructs before the terrified eyes of mainstream audiences was the first Hollywood feature to take a close-up look at queer culture. In spite of a plethora of topical or dated references — “midnight cowboys,” marihuana hidden in Band-Aid boxes, Maria Montez — the film is brilliantly acted and has an emotional clarity and power that hasn’t dimmed over the years. It was also a breakthrough in obtaining an R rating from the usually prudish MPAA, which the year before had given the dreaded X to both Midnight Cowboy and The Killing of Sister George, which mined some of the same territory.

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Gay Scene: Cruising (1980)

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Pacino dances (on poppers) scene from Cruising. And if you’re one of those gayist bores who has your high horse at the ready, bear in mind that apart from Pacino, almost everyone else in this scene was a patron of the bar where the scene was filmed, told to do what they would normally do on a Saturday night, only to have to return to reshoot the entire sequence after producers insisted the extras “tone it down” so the film could avoid a XXX rating. 

reblogged from theexorcist: Did you know? This is Paul Bateson. Paul was a 38 year-old x-ray technician at NYU Medical Center where the arteriogram sequence in The Exorcist was shot, and landed himself a bit-part in the film as the radiologist’s assistant. In 1979, Paul was convicted after confessing to the murder of film critic Addison Verrill by crushing his skull with a frying pan and then stabbing Verrill multiple times in the heart. While in custody and awaiting trial, Paul bragged of killing other men “for fun,” dumping the bagged remains of his victims in the Hudson River. After reading about the events in the paper, William Friedkin then arranged to meet with Paul at Rikers Island Penitentiary - a big change from their last encounter on the set of The Exorcist. After interviewing Paul and learning the facts of the case, Friedkin went on to direct Cruising. Released in 1980 and starring Al Pacino, the film was inspired by the series of “bag murders” of ‘77 and ‘78.

reblogged from theexorcist:

Did you know? This is Paul Bateson. Paul was a 38 year-old x-ray technician at NYU Medical Center where the arteriogram sequence in The Exorcist was shot, and landed himself a bit-part in the film as the radiologist’s assistant.

In 1979, Paul was convicted after confessing to the murder of film critic Addison Verrill by crushing his skull with a frying pan and then stabbing Verrill multiple times in the heart. While in custody and awaiting trial, Paul bragged of killing other men “for fun,” dumping the bagged remains of his victims in the Hudson River.

After reading about the events in the paper, William Friedkin then arranged to meet with Paul at Rikers Island Penitentiary - a big change from their last encounter on the set of The Exorcist. After interviewing Paul and learning the facts of the case, Friedkin went on to direct Cruising. Released in 1980 and starring Al Pacino, the film was inspired by the series of “bag murders” of ‘77 and ‘78.

Artistic Differences: Cruising in Blue

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Movie Of The Day: Cruising (1980)

No serious gay film lover’s collection of DVDs could possibly be complete without the infamous and widely misunderstood classic Cruising. It’s from the director of The Exorcist AND The Boys in the Band for crying out loud! If you don’t have it yet, buy it now.