1980 saw the release of two movies that became the target of gay rights protestors.

The protests during and after the making of William Friedkin’s Cruising received global coverage. Those triggered by the movie Windows received less publicity, even though they both had the same theme – gays and lesbians as psychopathic killers.

Cruising was based on a book by New York reporter Gerald Walker about a real series of gay murders. It starred Al Pacino as a heterosexual cop who went undercover in New York’s gay S&M scene to track down the serial killer. In the course of the movie it appears that Pacino’s character starts to develop homosexual feelings himself. Then the movie concludes with the suggestion that he has also started killing off gay men.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, protests began as soon as the movie went into production.

The initial response was triggered by the fact that Walker’s book had been blatantly homophobic. Not only did it stereotype gay men but many felt that Walker had implied that the victims got what they deserved. And so filming was disrupted from the outset. Protestors employed a range of tactics that ranged from renting apartments right next to the shoot location and blasting loud music from the windows to standing on rooftops with mirrors and deflecting the sun’s rays to disrupt lighting set ups.

And despite William Friedkin’s assurances that the movie had not taken the homophobic stance of the book, it was still slammed by the gay community upon its release.

Criticisms included the fact that it portrayed gay men as either psychopaths or passive victims of violence, that it failed to reflect the diversity of the real gay community and that it presented gay identity purely in terms of sexual behaviour.

Pacino’s ‘transformation’ into homosexual and serial killer was singled out for particular criticism. The association of the two was bad enough but the film also seemed to be taking the ‘contagion’ line – that people who hang around homosexuals will be subverted by, and become one of, them. This was precisely the argument that homophobes such as Anita Bryant had been using for years to justify discrimination against gays.

In comparison with Cruising, Windows was less sophisticated in its offensiveness – it merely implied that all lesbians were potentially psychopathic! It focused on a straight woman and her gay neighbour’s increasing infatuation with her. As the poster above illustrates, the lesbian’s twisted passions just get more and more twisted until it ends up getting really nasty!

Whilst I very much remember reading about the protests around Cruising, I was completely unaware that the movie Windows even existed.

I suspect this is down to a couple of things. Firstly, that there were no big names involved therefore no one outside the USA even got to hear about it.

And, secondly, that it was such a bad movie on every level no one even went to see it! (For example, it’s one of Yahoo’s 10 Worst Movies of the 1980’s, it was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards  – Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Director). It was the directorial debut of Gordon Willis – and even he realised that it was such a turkey he decided to never direct another movie again.

While Windows has basically sunk without trace since its release, Cruising was recently released on DVD to a more positive reception than the one it got in 1980. Central to this is the changed context in which the movie is now viewed.

At the time of its original release Cruising was one of a relatively small number of movies portraying gay men, hence the criticism of its limited focus. Now it takes its place amongst a whole plethora of films – from Priscilla:Queen of the Desert to Totally Fucked Up – that demonstrate the diversity of the gay community.  It’s even been praised for being ahead of its time in portraying gay male sex as raunchy rather than ‘vanilla’.

As I understand it, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) greeted the release of the DVD by recognising its place in the wider range of gay and lesbian movies now available. Upon its original release, one of its most vocal critics was Vito Russo (The Celluloid Closet) – who went on to be a co-founder of GLAAD.

Not that I see any contradiction here; this is simply an example of the way our community – and society in general – has changed over the past thirty-odd years.