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A nasty little film depicting the seedy Gay underworld of late 70s/early 80s New York City. Pacino plays a young buck undercover cop thrown into the (by all accounts outlandishly depicted) Gay underground club existence to try to find a serial killer who has been targeting homosexual men. Pacino gets into the part and lets loose, and the joy of the film is watching Pacino completely throw off his macho chains and get into this role. The supporting cast, which features many familiar faces, is good too. The story of the hunt for the killer, and the weird, bewildering sort of twist at the end are less fufilling. Friedkin’s at times jarring mix of realistic and art damaged filmmaking is present and ready. Lots of awesome punk rock, and other music on the soundtrack(including a tune that the Germs wrote for this film). Very controversial upon release, I wonder if it’s still regarded in the same way today(I doubt it).