These past two weeks, American Crime Story has put forth two incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking episodes about the deaths that kicked off Andrew Cunanan’s murder spree, those of Jeff Trail and David Madson.
Madson was front and center last week, showing what ACS producers think most likely happened to him after Trail’s murder in his loft, interspersed with scenes of Madson and his father. This week, it’s Trail’s turn in the spotlight, as the show reveals his struggle as a gay naval officer and the way he met Cunanan.
Flashing back two years before his murder, we see Trail serving active duty in the Navy, stationed in San Diego. This is around the time when “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a new policy, but by all appearances, Trail loves his life in the military, even if it means hiding who he really is. That changes when he stops some fellow servicemen from beating another serviceman to death for being gay. This puts a huge target on Trail’s back and basically torpedoes his career.
The show makes it seem as though Trail meets Cunanan at a local gay bar and confides in him that he’s going to do an interview with CBS News program 48 Hours about gay people serving in the military. Cunanan makes a big show of talking about how servicemen who are against LGBTQ+ people in the military get to speak about it openly, while Trail has to hide his identity in order to even talk about the issue.
It’s a great point, though, weirdly, the timeline is a bit off. The 48 Hours special was filmed in 1993, which is around the time Cunanan and Trail met — not in 1995, as the show depicts, which may just be an error. There is also no evidence that Cunanan had anything to do with Trail’s decision to do the interview, but it does make for good storytelling and gets Cunanan more involved in Trail’s life in San Diego.
The show then jumps ahead to 1997, when Trail is already living in Minneapolis and Cunanan has come to visit him. It’s unclear if Cunanan’s jealousy over Trail and Madson’s alleged involvement started before he came to Minneapolis or after, but the show definitely uses that as the fuel that drives Cunanan to kill them both, though, in real life, the two were not involved. According to multiple accounts, the two were acquainted but not really even friends.
But Cunanan suspects the two are together romantically behind his back, so he invites Trail to Madson’s loft, and that’s where the episode ends for this story line, with Cunanan slamming the apartment door as he starts beating Trail to death with a hammer.
Outside of Trail’s story, we also get a few scenes with Gianni Versace after two weeks without any Versace material. This week, his experiences as a gay man dovetail nicely with Trail’s experience — they both give interviews about being gay, but while Trail has to conduct his in a seedy motel room with his face obscured by shadow, Versace, a celebrity, does his in a posh hotel suite with a glamorous photo shoot for The Advocate.
American Crime Story may be about Cunanan’s murder spree at its heart, but there is a thread running through it of the struggles gay men faced in the 1990s, as the movement itself was coming out of the closet and met with both support and violent hatred.
The juxtaposition of Trail and Versace is such an interesting framing device that it’s almost a shame we have to spend any time with Cunanan in this episode. Yes, he is the tie that binds all these men together, and Criss is doing an incredible job with the role, but his self-hatred and jealousy and the psychopathic way they manifest themselves is so ugly and manipulative and even jarring. It would have been nice to avoid him altogether for a week.
Like its predecessor American Horror Story, American Crime Story comes in the form of a miniseries. While its first season explored America’s racial divisions through the OJ Simpson case, this new series depicts the gay experience in the USA.
The Horror Story miniseries always had an appealing base narrative, although it tended to sag after a few episodes. Crime Story, by contrast, has had a better reception overall – perhaps because its grounding in historical events means it has less room to get lost.
This second series, subtitled ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’, begins with the 1997 murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his house in Miami, before spinning backwards (and forwards) to tell the story of his psychopathic killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), and the impact of Versace’s death on his sister, Donatella, who is – to many viewers’ excitement – played by Penelope Cruz. Another notable appearance is Ricky Martin as Gianni’s long-term partner.
Unfortunately, Criss’ Cunanan lacks flavour: within 15 minutes he has exhibited every symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder, and it’s a bit too textbook, relying on shocking acts to provide psychopathic bite. However, the show comes together around Cruz’s Donatella, who is a strong presence and provides the intrigue to power the first few episodes.
There is a beauty to this show. It was filmed in and outside the grotesquely sumptuous Miami house where Versace lived and on the steps where he would eventually die. The contrast between the world inside the villa and the world outside, from Cunanan’s viewpoint, symbolises the contrast in gay men’s experiences.
Aesthetically it feels like a telenovela or a Pedro Almodóvar film, whilst on a more spiritual level it brings insight into the two Versaces, and both depictions have depth. Cunanan is a bit Crimewatch-esque, although all could change as the nine episode series continues and develops the rest of his story which involves, among other things, a four-man murder spree.
Alhough the key word in any of these ‘American -whatever- Story’ shows is ‘trashy’, in this case it works. The show has valid points to make about celebrity culture, such as the unpleasant couple who ask Gianni for his autograph on the day of his death. After he refuses, they manage later to mop up some of his blood onto a scrap of paper, showing perhaps how fame transcends or even thrives on death. Overall, it is a promising and unpredictable show that has a few cards left up its sleeve.
This week’s episode of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace looked like it was going to buck the recent trend of going backwards in time to see what Versace murderer Andrew Cunanan was up to before he got to Miami Beach. It opened in Milan in 1995, with Versace himself (still very much alive then) arguing with his sister Donatella about his decision to give an interview with an American publication in which he will reveal he is gay. His lover (and assistant) Antonio D’Amico is present as well.
This is the first time we have seen these characters in a number of weeks, as the previous few episodes focused entirely on Andrew’s backstory. So it was a pleasure to see them pop up here. It is a curious decision to put names like Penelope Cruz and Ricky Martin on the bench, so I was fully anticipating an episode devoted in full to the story of Versace’s coming out.
Nope. Totally wrong. After the cold open in which Versace and Donatella have a heated exchange over what his coming out might mean for the company, we flash back to a few days before Jeff Trail is murdered in Minneapolis (brutally with a hammer by Andrew Cunanan, which we saw last week). Cunanan is on the phone with a credit card company representative trying to convince them to let him put one last charge on his card: a flight to Minneapolis, where he assures them he will be able to make his debt right.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, we see that Jeff is working a factory job. A coworker who he lunches with starts prying about Jeff’s past military experience. Jeff tells him he was an Officer and his friend wonders why he would leave that gig to come work here. Jeff is gets fired up pretty quickly, screaming at the man “It was MY choice!” He really makes a scene. As we know, especially from the title of the episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Jeff has most likely been dishonorably discharged from the military for being homosexual.
Soon Andrew is arriving in town, and Jeff and the fellow future Andrew victim David are at the airport to greet him. It’s clear that neither one of them wants much to do with Cunanan at this point, but Jeff speaks about a time where Andrew saved him, and so for old time’s sake is willing to put him up for a couple days. Andrew is all smiles of course, but it’s an eerie feeling the viewer gets realizing that within days this smiling man will be the end of both people there to welcome him.
The episode has its ups and downs in that we know where all this is leading. At times this makes it a little more dull than the last few episodes. At times it adds to the tension. We knew last week that Andrew had taken Jeff’s gun from his apartment without his permission, and the night he kills Jeff, Jeff comes to David’s apartment to retrieve the gun. So this week we see a scene in which Andrew goes through Jeff’s things. I’m not sure we needed to.
Much more interesting is the stuff with Jeff. We get a full backstory to this character, going back to when he was stationed on a ship in San Diego and decided to intervene when some of his fellow soldiers were beating another one to death for being gay. It’s a courageous act, but it is the very act that he later comes to regret. That sets off a chain of events that eventually leads to his death. People begin suspecting that he may, in fact, be gay. When he hears a fellow soldier who turned out to be gay cut a deal with the higher-ups to reveal everyone else he knew to be gay, but he would only be identifying them by their tattoos, Jeff sneaks away and literally tries to cut the tattoo on his leg off his body. It’s excruciating but speaks to his desperation.
Sadly, Jeff tries to hang himself. When he can’t do it, he heads to a gay bar for the first time ever. That’s where he meets the charming Andrew Cunanan. In the most interesting scene, we see Andrew lift Jeff’s spirits and we’re happy for him. But we also know that one day Andrew is going to bludgeon him to death with a hammer. Eventually, due to his meeting with Andrew, Jeff gets the courage to go on camera (though his face is not revealed) and speak about his time as a homosexual man in the military. He painfully laments how he regrets the greatest thing he ever did: saving that man from being beaten to death. This interview is paralleled by Versace’s own interview where he comes out of the closet; one with tentative pride and one with utter shame.
This is really what this series is all about. It’s zoomed in on specific character stories that speak to what was going on in America and the world at the time. That’s what The People Vs. O.J. did so well, and what I was worried this second season would fall flat with. But I stand corrected. These are important stories and interesting ones. And the show just keeps getting better.
Yet, we all know the best comedy comes from the darkest of places. So Wednesday night’s appropriately titled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” named for the military policy that prohibited LGBTQ+ individuals from openly serving, decided to look behind the curtain and explore the painful history hiding behind marriage jokes and eye rolls. For a series that long-promised its goal was to unpack the true ills of homophobia, “DADT” accomplishes that aim in the most visceral, unforgettable way possible.
For the kinds of people who fall into Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s target audience — the younger, more liberal, coastal and LGBTQ+-friendly among us — the idea of being an out and proud gay person seems doable, or maybe even easy. Same-sex marriage has been nationally legal for years! Barack Obama ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell! Queer Eyeis back! But for naval officer Jeff, the possibility of being outed in the mid-to-late ‘90s is rife with as much anxiety as any psychological thriller.
Jeff begins feeling the heat of possibly being dragged out of the closet after he saves a younger gay Navy man from a near-deadly beating in the barracks. Jeff drags the man to safety, and they share a tender, but in no way explicit, moment on a private shower bench. A fellow sailor (Ric Maddox) notices and intimidates Jeff the next day by explaining an unknown gay serviceman was arrested by military police and cut a deal. The mystery man will out everyone on base he has ever hooked up with in exchange for avoiding dishonorable discharge. Since the guy doesn’t know names, he is going to serve up a list of identifiable tattoos.
Cut to Jeff alone in the bathroom with a box cutter, some bandages, gauze, and what appears to be antiseptic. Yes, the officer does have a tattoo and he’s willing to cut away large parts of his flesh to keep that a secret. The scene gets so real, director Daniel Minahan zooms in on Jeff carving into his own leg before relenting thanks to the unimaginable pain we can all assume the sailor is in. That is how scary the specter of homophobia was, and is — Jeff was willing to mutilate himself just to avoid it. Otherwise, he could have lost everything.
Jeff’s sense of impending doom only gets worse when he is given a copy of Dignity & Respect, the military handbook detailing how the institution deals with homosexuality. Unsurprisingly, it’s terrifying and offensive, spelling out the end of Jeff’s career if he’s ever “found out.” It’s important to remember service runs through Jeff’s veins, as almost every member of his family hails from a military branch. Plus, the young man graduated from the hallowed naval halls of Annapolis Academy. Losing the Navy isn’t merely losing a job, it’s losing an entire life, in disgrace, all because of whom he chooses to love. That’s horrific.
That is also what leads to “DADT’s” most tense scene. After flipping through Dignity & Respect, Jeff prepares to commit suicide. He puts on his pristine naval whites, fashions a noose, and attempts to hang himself. But, the feeling of dying is too terrible to abide, and Jeff stops before it’s too late. It’s clear Jeff planned to die in this manner so he could end his life as a well-respected Naval officer. That’s why he’s wearing the full uniform; by dying in it, no one can take that away from him. It makes tragic sense, since it feels as though that hard-fought status will be torn away from him at any second. All because he doesn’t want to sleep with women.
In a matter of a few minutes, we’re confronted with images of a man hacking away at himself and nearly ending his own life all because of the dark power of homophobia. And, those sobering moments are surrounded by the repeated beatings of supposedly gay men, the hateful slinging of slurs, and actual police investigations into people’s sexuality. This is what really happens when such hatred is institutionalized at the highest levels of government.
**Warning for images of self harm and attempted suicide in this recap**
The arc of time always endorses progress, but it’s amazing how long it can take to get from “no way” to “no duh.” Obviously, in 2018 we agree that women should be allowed to vote and people of color should have access to drinking fountains etc., but those basic things took decades of horrible, hateful ‘debate’ until they were suddenly accepted as common wisdom. Gay people can now serve openly in the military thanks to a ‘radical’ policy change by President Obama and it already feels like such a no-brainer that people don’t even really debate it anymore. Yet that policy change followed a hundred years of institutionalized homophobia, unreported assaults, murders, and dishonorable discharges. This week’s episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace whisked us back to those dark times and as difficult as it was to watch, it felt valuable and necessary to truly appreciate how much better things are now. Let’s talk about it!
We began with Donatella Versace completely queening out.
Gianni had just informed her that he was intending to ‘come out’ in the press, and rather than applaud him for his bravery, Donatella was VERY concerned about the company’s bottom line. In her opinion, the rock stars and literal royalty they’d been dressing would not want to be associated with a gay designer. That is obviously an insane line of reasoning today — A gay person? In fashion?? — but in her mind it made sense. Fortunately, Gianni was still feeling grateful to be alive after nearly succumbing to AIDS-related symptoms and in his mind coming out would be a celebration of life. It would also, it appeared, trigger a certain psychopath’s obsessions with him.
That same Advocate article in which Versace came out as a homosexual had been hastily taped up in the back of Andrew Cunanan’s closet. And considering his apartment was empty save for trash bags and tattered underwear, the presence of these magazine pages made clear that Versace was still on his radar in a big way.
Also, he was deeply in debt and he’d taken to shooting up heroin between his toes, both of which were bad signs. Andrew Cunanan’s journey had definitely taken a detour through some dark woods.
We then met up with Jeff Trail (an incredible Finn Wittrock) working at some kind of compressed gas factory. During a testy lunch conversation with a coworker, we gathered that his post-military career had been less-than-prestigious compared to his Annapolis peers and he honestly didn’t want to talk about it, thank you.
After conning his credit card company into allowing him one last purchase (a flight to Minneapolis!), Cunanan arrived attempting to resume his BFF-status with Jeff Trail and David Madson. But it became immediately clear neither of them wanted to see him. In Jeff’s case, it was because apparently Cunanan had sent a postcard to Jeff’s dad ostensibly OUTING HIM. (A true gay psycho power play if there ever was one.) And David was just straight up tired of getting proposed to by someone who made his stomach turn.
You know? Like, thank you for the $10,000 Rolex you clearly stole from a trick, but I’d rather not enter into a joint tax status with you.
Even though Jeff couldn’t even stand to look at Cunanan, he agreed to let him crash at his place. But he had no intention of actually being there, as he then couch surfed at this pregnant sister’s house. She was about to give birth any minute, and he was excited to become a proud gay uncle. There was not yet an Instagram back then, but just imagine all the gay uncle photos he’d post around the holidays! Things were looking bright.
It was pretty awkward when David took Andrew out that night, and Andrew couldn’t stop bragging to David’s co-workers that they were engaged. David had made the mistake of replying to his constant proposals with “TBD” but Andrew took that as a yes. Anyway, it was so stressful to me. But I DID enjoy this lady absolutely wailing on a clarinet. Go girl!
Back at Jeff’s place, Andrew was the world’s worst houseguest and immediately began going through all of Jeff’s stuff. He found the gun, obviously, but he also found David’s old Navy uniform along with a VHS tape of the CBS special he’d appeared in (anonymously) talking about being gay in the military. And even though to us it was a brave document of being a closeted soldier in a time when that could get you killed, Andrew seemed resentful and hateful toward Jeff, pointing a gun at the TV instead. Truly twisted.
We then flashed back to Jeff’s time in the Navy, specifically the series of incidents in which another gay naval officer was routinely assaulted by his comrades and only Jeff stepped in to stop it. Jeff was doing the right thing in helping his peer, but this immediately painted a target on his back for being another potential gay. And things got worse when gay soldiers began to name names in order to avoid dishonorable discharge. Or, in certain cases, named tattoos.
Oh god. Jeff cut off his tattoo with a box cutter. That alone should tell you how intense this was getting.
Around this time the Navy decided to kinda-sorta address homosexuality in the military by distributing comic books that dramatized “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” At the time I think people thought this policy would protect the inner lives of gay servicemen, but in retrospect, we know that it led to more discharges and persecution than ever before.
So, yeah. Things were pretty bleak. (Spoiler: Jeff did not end up hanging himself in this scene.)
Ironically, one of the saving graces in Jeff’s turmoil came when he encountered a bright and personable guy at a local gay bar. The thing with sociopaths is sometimes they use their gift/curse for the betterment of others, and in this case, Andrew Cunanan was just the fun-night-out that Jeff needed to feel like himself. And over the course of several hangs, we got the sense that Jeff was ready to embrace his sexuality and even go so far as to appear in a television interview that could potentially get him kicked out of the military. In other words, he was ready for the runway.
Loved this visual reference to Get Out. I love that from now on, anytime someone eats Froot Loops while sitting cross-legged will be forever marked as a psycho. And yeah, when Jeff arrived back at his now-messy apartment to find Andrew doing this, guess what he said? “Get out!” Even though all those years ago Andrew had been a friendly face at a gay bar, he was now overstaying his welcome in Jeff’s life. And unfortunately for Jeff, he was too honest about this fact.
Because as we learned last week, after Andrew lured Jeff to David’s loft with the promise of returning his handgun (Jeff, c’mon. Did you really think Andrew had placed the gun in his duffel “accidentally”?) he suddenly found himself on the business end of a hammer. Really terrible.
And the tragic button was that while Jeff’s mangled corpse was lying wrapped in a rug, his sister went into labor and gave birth. Damn.
“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was another wonderful exploration of the life and trials of one of Cunanan’s victims, and it was especially elegantly told. Tying together Versace’s coming-out interview with Jeff Trail’s staying-in interview was the perfect way to describe the exact nature of being closeted in 1997. If even wealthy, super successful artists struggled to make that leap, how on earth could an everyman in the military do it? It was an untenable situation, and like many other elements of gay life in the ’90s, it contributed to the environment that pushed Andrew Cunanan to commit the crimes he did. There’s still a long way to go before homosexuality is a non-issue with some people, but this episode was a lovely and painful reminder that things really have gotten better. Hopefully, we can keep that going.
We’ve spent the last two hours of The Assassination of Gianni Versace without getting a glimpse of its namesake (Édgar Ramírez), so when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” welcomes the iconic fashion designer back into the fold of his own story, it’s undoubtedly a welcome sight (even if the scene in question again revolves around him arguing with his sister, Donatella [Penélope Cruz]). Gianni wants to announce his homosexuality to the world, having survived a bout with AIDS and grasping that it’s no good to simply live however many days he has left in the shadows. His lover and partner for over a decade, Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), stands by Gianni’s side, and Donatella instantly blames him. He wants to be famous. He cannot stand to be a side player. She implores Gianni to think about the company (which is about to go public on the NYSE) – not to mention the future of all his employees – before sitting down and delivering what could be a devastating declaration.
This season of American Crime Story has been incredibly political, and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” dials the “serial killer procedural” element down a notch to focus on issues of class within the gay community, and how those standings affect individuals looking to come out of the closet. For Versace, it’s an event – an interview in The Advocate where he demands Antonio be by his side during the entire chat – reclaiming his own sense of identity after cheating death for a little more time on the planet. But for future Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) victim Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock), his public revelation is an act of defiance against a military that’s not only called him and others like him a “faggot”, but also beaten enlisted sailors within an inch of their lives once their sexualities were discovered. As an enlisted officer in the Navy, Trail had to live his truth in shameful silence, before rescuing a subordinate after he was ritualistically bludgeoned by his peers.
The threat of outing within the military – an act that would cost Trail not only his career, but possibly his family (as many members in his bloodline served, as well) – even forces Jeff to mutilate his body. After another officer tells the tale of a recently arrested colleague outing sailors based on the tattoos he recalled seeing during sexual encounters with other men, Jeff takes a box cutter and tries to carve some ink off his leg, leading him to bleed through his uniform while sitting in the Captain’s quarters, where a pamphlet on Naval ethics and code of conduct is being handed out to every man who owns a leadership position on his ship. When Jeff decides to finally break his silence and give an interview to television reporters, it comes with the stipulation that his face be blacked out and his voice altered. It’s a far cry from the well-lit, welcoming photo shoot the gay publication sets up for Versace.
These political explorations are a welcome respite from the exploits of Andrew Cunanan, who – despite being compellingly played by Criss every episode – was starting to become a little bit of a repetitive character (though, to be fair, he’s also a serial killer, so routine is kind of his thing). The non-linear structure, while often clever, does “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” zero favors, muddying some of the relationships. We see Jeff first through Andrew’s eyes, as he cons his way into a trip to Minneapolis (on American Express’ dime) in a last-ditch attempt at having a normal life by marrying the focus of last week’s episode (not to mention Trail’s best friend and lover), David Madson (Cody Fern). We already know how this all ends, so there’s a bit of wheel-spinning going on as Jeff gives Andrew a less-than-fuzzy reception at the airport, and we recognize he’s right to be distrustful of the sociopathic pretty boy.
So, why spend all this time illustrating Andrew’s relationship to Jeff? One could argue Andrew – no matter how evil and deadly he is – still definitely played an oddly positive role in the Navy man’s life. Andrew meets Jeff during the first time the officer steps into a gay bar. Andrew shows him the ropes (so to speak) regarding his queerness; proving to Jeff that his sexuality isn’t awful, and that not everybody is going to hate him for being gay. Eventually, Jeff is the only one who spots Andrew spinning his web of lies, while David can’t help but want to help his fellow queer. A susceptibility to this series of wild stories is what ends up costing both Jeff and David their lives, as Andrew begins doling out another new legend of needing to begin anew in San Francisco, all so he can get inside David’s apartment and wait there like a patient predator. The fictions keep driving him forward, allowing Andrew to set traps for new prey.
Beyond class, the friendships Jeff forms between Andrew and David illustrate just how difficult it is to come out of the closet on basic principle alone for some gay men. On one hand, they have the morals and values they’ve been instilled with throughout their lives – represented by Jeff’s commitment to his familial institution, the military. He looks to the red, white, and blue, wanting to be a Good American in a United States that has said (from the President on down) that they don’t want his kind representing it in combat. On the other hand, David is a successful openly gay man, and Andrew has no problem embracing his sexuality. “The bars, the meals, the men. Everything you gave me means nothing,” Jeff tells Andrew at one point, finishing with, “I want my life back. My real life, as a soldier.” For some, self-acceptance was just as impossible as societal acceptance, and Jeff Trail’s life ended while he was still in a state of spiritual limbo, wrestling with his own truth every night, before waking up and going to work at a factory with the other vets, who he’d continue to keep his secret from.
Showrunner Ryan Murphy decided to start The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story with the titular designer’s death. For the first eight minutes of the show, there is minimal talking. We hear only the greetings as Versace (Edgar Ramírez) encounters various characters at the start of his day and the screams of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), who was in the midst of a killing spree targeting gay men. What overwhelms our senses are the sounds of “Adagio in G Minor,” a haunting piece of baroque, Italian composition that we’ve all heard on screen many times, from Flashdance to Casanova to Manchester by the Sea. Though effective, it is not a particularly original choice. But, another layer is added to the story ACS: Versace is telling us if you explore the murky history of this piece of music.
“There were a couple of others we were trying, all in the same classical, Italian landscape,” the show’s music supervisor, Amanda Krieg Thomas, told Refinery29 on a recent phone call. Murphy, who directed the first episode, chose to set the sequence to a single piece of music and had the show’s composer, Mac Quayle, record a new version of this song to picture, so the arrangement matches up perfectly with the action.
There is a duality to watching a man who will lie, steal, and kill to serve his own ends execute another man in a moment scored by someone who perpetrated the most significant scam in classical music history. A musicologist named Remo Giazotto claims to have discovered the adagio, circa 1949. Giazotto was writing a book on the 18th-century Venetian master Tomaso Albinoni and said he had found this fragment of music in his archives, consisting of six bars of a melody. Giazotto took the liberty of finishing the composition, and the “Adagio in G Minor” was born. Except that Giazotto’s story wasn’t true. There is no proof to support that Albinoni wrote that fragment of music. Giazotto retracted his story later in life and took sole credit for the piece.
When it comes to pop music, of which the show has an abundance, powerhouse female vocalists from the late ‘80s and early ’90s are the stars in ACS: Versace. “It’s different from The People Versus O.J. Simpson in every way, but that show was a snapshot of the period, and that’s what we did for it musically as well. This season, the vision from Murphy was more focused on Cunanan and the type of music he would have grown up with; songs that would have been around him and in the places he went to that he’d be listening to,” Krieg Thomas says. The universe of ACS: Versace is aurally made up of women: club and radio jams by Lisa Stansfield, La Bouche, Indeep, Soul II Soul, and Jocelyn Enriquez all make appearances. And, of course, Laura Branigan whose cover (with its rewritten English lyrics) of “Gloria” became a hit in 1982. Her take is revived in episode 2, when Cunanan blasts it while he sings along in a stolen truck, taken from a man he killed.
“Murphy is such a fan of music, and for many of the moments, he knew what he wanted. ‘Gloria’ was one of those; he’s a big Laura Branigan fan,” Krieg Thomas said, which is probably not something anyone has said in decades. Her assertion bears itself out, though; the show uses another Branigan track, a No. 1 hit that has been all but forgotten in modern times, “You Take My Self Control,” in a future episode. “It works really well on many levels — it’s so incongruous with what just happened, he’s murdered people, he’s driving, and we hear this happy, upbeat song,” Krieg Thomas continued. She noted that the lyrics speak to what is happening: “Gloria, you’re always on the run now / Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow” and “Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’? / If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?”
A checking of the boxes (fits the show’s aesthetic, lyrically speaks to the scene) is noticeable at numerous moments in the first two episodes alone. “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” plays when Cunanan meets Versace in a club in San Francisco, letting us know something is afoot. “Be My Lover” plays while Cunanan fruitlessly searches for Versace in a South Beach club in a fit of desperation. It’s a sickening foreshadowing when Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey’s “Easy Lover” plays as Cunanan ties up and dominates a john. Under the Miami Vice aesthetic of this ’80s hit lies a cautionary tale about a lover who will leave and deceive, giving you nothing but regrets. As for talk that it might be an homage to American Psycho, Krieg Thomas said, “although it’s pulled from the same easy listening palette, it wasn’t a reference point.”
In episodes 3, 4, and 5, the soundtrack pivots to speak to us about the other men Cunanan killed: Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock), and David Madson (Cody Fern). With Lee, it’s a resetting of the aesthetic by using songs coded for older gay men; where Doris Day and Astrud Gilberto play on the hi-fi. With Trail and Madson, the work is largely done by the show’s score, which sets a mood of horror to match the change in cinematography to the darker, harsher tones of Minnesota sunlight and Madson’s industrial loft. In episode 4, the foreshadowing is heavy when Madson and Cunanan are in a bar listening to Aimee Mann sing the saddest version imaginable of “Drive,” a morose uber-hit for the Cars in the ’80s. Madson’s tears along with the lyrics, “Who’s gonna pay attention / To your dreams? / Who’s gonna plug their ears / When you scream?” let us know that there was no escape. Not to the outside world where gay men were vilified, and not with Cunanan on a Bonnie and Clyde-esque murder spree.
The show uses music to tell us about Versace, as well. His South Beach soundscape is not so different from Cunanan’s, full of club music and dance hits but with flourishes of Italian classical dropped in to remind us where he comes from. In episode 2, there was a moment where the real Versace spoke. In another theme for this show, that of cover songs, they lifted a track that Versace used in his final fashion show for the scene with Donatella (Penélope Cruz), dropping the Lightning Seeds cover of “You Showed Me” in after their big fight over models and how to build a fashion brand. Reports have the siblings fighting quite a lot at the time, with Donatella trying to find her place in the house of Versace after her brother’s return upon his recovery from an illness. The use of this song in his real life may have simply been reaching for what was in the air at the time — it was the height of Britpop, and in his other shows he had used adjacent tracks like “Wonderwall” by Oasis. Or, it might have been a carefully constructed message to his sister. That we even ask the question, however, is entirely thanks to its presence in the American Crime Story universe.
