Rewatchables Reference

• The Pacino dancing scene – called 'the most rewatchable scene of the 80s.'
• Sorvino laying out the case to Pacino: 'All of the victims appear to be the same physical type... they all look like you.'
• The Dressmaker kill sequence – 'a little Hitchcock movie in the middle of 'Cruising'.'
• The ending: Karen Allen putting on the killer's clothing, Pacino looking in the mirror.

• The killer being really creepy – dubbed/different voices add to the unease.
• The music/soundtrack: Willy DeVille, John Hiatt, The Germs, Mutiny – gritty punk-disco downtown sound.
• Karen Allen in movies of this era.
• Pacino's costume arc (khakis to blue work shirt to eye makeup to studded leather belts).
• James Remar (Warriors, 48 Hours era).
• The title card sequence – 'the sickest title card sequences.'

• Stuart's sentencing: 'You could be out in two years' for killing five people.
• The dubbed killer dialogue – intentionally different voices, but partly a product of protests ruining sound.
• The newspaper headline 'Homo Killer on the Prowl.'
• Al Pacino's height blocking in the park showdown – standing on benches and inclines to appear as tall.

• Bill: 'This would have been the greatest Tom Cruise part ever' – circa 1993 or 'Eyes Wide Shut' era.
• Wesley: 'Paul Sorvino sucks at pool.'
• Wesley: At the Eagle with 1000 guys, 'there's no scenario in which I pick this version of Al Pacino.'

• Richard Gere was signed and ready to go, but too handsome – 'people wouldn't last 10 minutes in that world.'
• Steven Spielberg was circling the movie as director – Wesley: 'If Spielberg directs 'Cruising', Western history is different.'

Skip Lee – 'coming in hot from the moment he shows up' – 'Don't you call me lady... I treated you like a son, you fucking stabbed me in the heart.'

• Joe Spinell and Mike Starr as the corrupt cop duo.
• James Remar.

• Karen Allen's character (though her scenes were cut significantly).
• The sting operation/Saint James Hotel scene – confusing.

Winner: the Pacino dancing scene – directly tied to the most rewatchable scene.

• Pacino's silhouette walking into the 712 bar under a bridge to meet Sorvino.
• The shaving shot in the mirror where Karen Allen starts putting on the killer's clothes.
• Precinct Night sex montage – described as 'a moving painting.'

• The S&M leather scene in movies – Wesley's pick: 'Not until Marsellus Wallace in 'Pulp Fiction' does it approach this again.'
• Not Pacino, not Sorvino, not Friedkin, not Karen Allen.

• The killer's gun shooting blanks (cliche movie trope).
• Pacino's line to Karen Allen: 'There's a lot about me you don't know' – overly overt.
• Who killed Ted? Unanswerable – Sorvino seems to suspect Pacino.

• Bill: 'There might be better ways to become a detective.'
• Wesley: 'Take the job' – for a repressed Catholic kid, this assignment was 'a gift from God.'

'The Warriors' then 'Cruising' – both late-70s controversial NYC movies.

• Declared untouchable – belongs to the late 70s too specifically.
• Wesley argues a 6-hour prestige TV version could work, set in 1980 again, showing more of Steve's psychological transformation.

• Wesley: the aviator sunglasses.
• Wesley: the boots and socks from the wrestling magazines floor scene.

William Friedkin – 'the nerve to do it and the nerve to care.'