Help with ending of "Cruising"

[oceanauk]

I watched an old film with Al Pacino recently called "Cruising" - he went undercover in the gay community to track down a murderer. But I just didn't get the end of the film! Has anyone else seen it and can you explain it for me! Thanks - I must be a bit thick!!

[Philtaz]

Can't say I've seen it.  Was it definitely called Cruising?  One of Pacino's early films was called Serpico, where he played the (true story) lead as Frank Serpico, a New York cop who went undercover.

[LiverpoolLou]

Hi oceanauk - Just done a quick Google search on both films mentioned, I have seen them both and think they are both brilliant, but I must admit I always get mixed up with them. Probably because they where made so close together.

 

Cruising - Serial killer who slays and dismembers gay men, now if I remember rightly, the ending was that he ended up being gay himself.

Serpico - he played an honest cop who refused to go on the take.

[oceanauk]

Wow thanks LiverpoolLou!! It was definately "Cruising" - and the ending was Al Pacino staring in a mirror and his girlfriend in the next room putting on the leather jacket and hat that he had used to go undercover with and then some tension-building music was played and there was the jingling of his jacket and it ended!!!  I did wonder whether he was unsure of his sexuality throughout the film and couldn't understand what it meant at the end - whether upon hearing the jingling jacket it made him realise he was gay.  Also just before this scene, another young guy in was slaine - who was this?  Was it the college roommate of the serial killer?  Still, you could see Al Pacino's acting skills even back then - he was pretty young in this film - must have been the seventies by the dress style in it!

[The_Mac_Lad]

I always thought the ending was alluding to his character being gay.