Cinema: Cop-Out in a Dark Demimonde

CRUISING Directed and Written by William Friedkin

By making Cruising, William Friedkin was asking for trouble. This detective melodrama has something to offend almost everyone: the plot concerns a string of sex murders, and the main setting is Manhattan's unsavory demimonde of sadomasochistic homosexual bars. Last summer, gay activists picketed Cruising's locations, charging that the film would stir anti-gay violence. Two weeks ago, a big theater chain threatened to cancel Cruising 's bookings on the grounds that the film merited an X rather than its official R rating. When the movie opens nationwide...