Still as provocative and controversial as it was when it hit theatres in 1980, William Friedkin's lurid thriller Cruising stars Al Pacino in one of his most iconic roles as a rookie cop tasked to go undercover in New York City’s gay leather scene to find a killer. Tracking a serial murderer lurking in the shadows of the Meatpacking District’s fetish bars and haunting the public sex hot spots of the city, Pacino leaves girlfriend Karen Allen at home as he immerses himself into the S&M scene — fully equipped with black tank top, leather jacket, and boots… but the deeper he goes, the harder it is to return to the life he knew before.

As proven in Jeffrey Schwarz’s latest doc Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders (which plays directly before this screening of Cruising at the Roxie), the debate as to whether Cruising has become an indispensable time capsule of a pre-AIDS New York or remains an inscrutable bit of voyeuristic exploitation rages on. No matter which pocket of this enduring argument you end up putting your hanky into (though versatility is always acceptable!), Cruising remains a thrilling piece of cinema from one of American cinema’s finest and most adventurous auteurs.