The best film from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, an insightful new documentary that details true-life murder(s) that inspired William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 cop thriller Cruising. Directed by Jeffery Schwarz, the doc follows the murders, subsequent investigation, and arrest of the man who admitted to the brutal beating and stabbing death of film critic Addison Verrill. Schwarz parallels this gruesome story with the making of Friedkin’s film; traversing through its nearly-impossible production and onto its heated reception and divisive legacy.
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders captures the minute-to-minute fear that swept through New York City’s gay culture (specifically the underground leather scene) during the time of the murders. Although the police had their man for the murder of Verrill, there were still unsolved killings, as body parts continued to be discovered in the Hudson River. Without terrifying certainty, authorities knew they were looking for a serial killer of gay men. These killings inspired Friedkin to make Cruising. That a respected filmmaker would use the backdrop of a very real horror to make a thriller enraged New York City’s gay community. The strongest argument comes from one of the interviewees. When speaking of his distaste toward Cruising, he states how the film makes the gays look like murderers who kill the reflections of themselves. The man questions, “What about the evil people that kill us?”
There is certainly an argument to be made regarding William Friedkin making such a gruesome piece during a time when the world didn’t really understand (nor accept) the gay life. When it came to the leather scene, many people had never heard of such a thing. Once the news of the murders broke, it brought the lifestyle into the light; shocking middle America and sending the judgement police into a rage. A majority of NYC’s gay men felt Friedkin painted too-ugly a picture of that world; forever demonizing kinky sex and the gay community as a whole.
Giving voice to both sides of the Cruising debate, Schwarz’s structure allows stronger context and a better understanding of the queer pushback. With the majority of protesters feeling these crimes were used as exploitation to achieve a box office winner, director Jeffery Schwarz lets those who lived it explain the depth of the resistance. Addison Verrill’s boyfriend at the time of his death, Robert Geary, speaks to his late mate’s character and his personal rage and sadness in the aftermath. To this day, Geary cannot come to terms with the way Verrill died. His emotional testimonies are the bridge that connects the real danger of the time to the anger towards Cruising’s production.
The documentary follows Paul Bateson’s story as well. A longtime alcoholic, Bateson had a good reputation and great job as a neurological technologist. One of cinema’s greatest “Are you serious?” true facts is that Bateman has a bit part as a technician in Friedkin’s The Exorcist. He is prominently featured in the scene of Regan’s angiography. The filmmaker had no clue that, five years later, he would be prepping a thriller based on a murder (or alleged murders) committed by this man. Looking back, it is unnerving to watch Bateson in the scene. He is a peaceful and calming presence who tries to make Linda Blair’s character as comfortable as possible. Understanding what we know of the Paul Bateson to come, it is difficult to reconcile what this man would do and the ugly legacy he would leave behind.
Those who knew Paul Bateson struggle with such a “scarlet letter” dichotomy. Moments such as one of Bateson’s closest friends crying for him (and claiming he didn’t deserve to be so ostracized after serving his time) may not sit well with some viewers, but Schwarz was smart to include them. Killers aren’t born that way. Any murderer throughout time has been shaped by life events and/or mental illness. To this day, it is unclear if Bateson killed only Addison Verrill or was indeed the serial killer many believe him to be. Whatever the case, Bateson had friends who loved him. Their recollections deserve to be heard.
Many voices populate the film to paint a clearer portrait of the struggles gay men of 1970s New York City were forced to endure and of William Friedkin’s desire to make Cruising as authentic as possible. Not only was acceptance a gargantuan hurdle for homosexuals, now there were murders specifically targeting their community and a major motion picture that seemed to exploit what they were going through. All of this snowballed into a time of great resistance that, tragically, would see the beginnings of a mysterious virus that was infecting and killing gay men. As the 70s ended and the 80s began, AIDS would find deaths in record numbers; another cause for an uninformed nation to fear what they do not wish to understand. Once again, the community who had just lived through years of fear was terrorized by another enemy; the deadliest they would ever face.
Crucified at the time of its release, time has allowed Cruising to become a better-remembered work, although many continue to find it exploitation rather than a serious thriller from a respected Academy Award-winning filmmaker. As for the murders, the theories are vast and the film doesn’t try to solve them. There could have been more than one killer (a theory William Friedkin put into his adaptation of Gerald Walker’s book) or it could have been only one. Paul Bateson murdered only Andrew Verrill or he was a serial killer who dismembered his victim’s bodies. One will leave the film with no answer to the “who actually did it?” query, but audiences should come away with a better sense of the time, the community, and why the production of such a movie was met with a strong response.
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders is not a condemnation of William Friedkin, nor is it meant to demonize his film. This is a document of how the murders shaped Friedkin’s story and (most importantly) how they terrorized an entire community who were already fighting for acceptance in 1979.
Director Schwarz does not seek sympathy for Paul Bateson and doesn’t attempt to sway one’s opinion regarding Cruising, Friedkin, nor the resistance to them. What he achieves is creating a fascinating scrapbook of that tumultuous era full of recollections, rage, sadness, determination, and (above all) truth.
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders
Directed by Jeffery Schwarz
NR, 85 Minutes, Automat Pictures, Blind Faith Productions