Busting’s 1974 Backlash: How a Vice Cop Movie Became a Flashpoint in the Gay Rights Era

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Busting’s 1974 Backlash: How a Vice Cop Movie Became a Flashpoint in the Gay Rights Era

Busting (1974) / 1970s

When Busting opened in 1974 it did more than underperform at the box office — it touched a raw nerve in a moment when gay-rights activism was moving into public consciousness. Journalists and activists led by Arthur Bell publicly condemned the film for its use of derogatory language and for a sequence set in a gay bar that Bell called “exploitative, unreal, unfunny and ugly.” Critics from mainstream papers amplified the controversy: Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas blasted the picture as “an abomination through and through,” saying it managed to insult both the police and Los Angeles’ homosexual citizens. Director Peter Hyams defended the material as “accurate to the milieu,” arguing his on-the-ground research with pimps, cops and sex workers justified the film’s tone, but that defense did little to stem the reputational damage. The uproar contributed to the movie’s poor legacy; while Busting later gets cited as an influence on the TV series Starsky & Hutch, at the time the angry public response and scathing reviews closed down the notion that the film had simply been misunderstood, and it remains a notable example of how 1970s Hollywood could collide disastrously with emerging social movements.