10 Amazing Films From Directors Who Stopped Giving A Damn

Not unlike Coppola, Friedkin was one of the major Hollywood players of the 1970s. 1971's The French Connection cleaned up at the Oscars and proved hugely influential on the cop thrillers that followed, whilst 1973's The Exorcist is arguably the most acclaimed - and, adjusted for inflation, most commercially successful - horror movie ever.

However, Friedkin didn't have anything like the same critical or commercial success with his next two films Sorcerer and The Brink's Job (although the former has since been widely declared one of his best). Subsequently, the director didn't have much to lose when he returned to cop thriller territory with his riskiest project to date, 1980's Cruising.

Inspired by real life crimes, Cruising centres on a series of murders in New York's gay S&M leather bar scene, and casts Al Pacino as a cop sent undercover to find the killer. However, as tends to be the case in undercover cop movies, the job takes a great personal toll.

Cruising had a very troubled production as much of the New York gay community aggressively protested the film, believing it would promote a homophobic agenda. It also had major problems with censors, thanks to uncensored footage of real sadomasochistic sex acts. A whopping 40 minutes of such footage (since lost) was cut for to avoid an X-rating.

On release, Cruising didn't go down well with critics or audiences, but as an example of just how bold mainstream filmmaking can get when the director has no f***s left to give, it's well worth a look.