HBO's "Angels In America"

[spiro3]

I'm surprised nobody here has commented on what from all accounts is to be a superb TV version of Tony Kutchner's 1994 play tonight. I have seen it put on by both professional and college productions, and it has always been riviting. This time it has a first -rate cast, including Al Pacino (as Roy Cohn, can't wait to see that!), Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson.

 

I especially hope some of our younger audience catches it, as I don't think AIDS is portrayed often enough as the devastating illness it can be, as it is in this play.

 

Ask someone to tape it if you don't get HBO: you'll be glad you did.

 

( I'd be interested to hear any feed-back if you see it)

[woodlawn]

RE: HBO's

 

>I'm surprised nobody here has commented on what from all

>accounts is to be a superb TV version of Tony Kutchner's 1994

>play tonight.

 

You are surprised? How are people supposed to comment on it when they haven't yet seen it?

[Barry]

RE: HBO's

 

I'm watching it now. It's not over yet but very powerful so far.

 

Barry

[pierrot]

RE: HBO's

 

I just saw the first half, and thought it was beautiful. I did not see the B'way show, but the TV series is, in my opinion, one of the finest things I've seen on American TV. (It reminds me more of BBC). My favorite line was Meryl Streep's as the mother from Utah talking to the homeless lady: "I'm sorry you're psychotic, but please make an effort."

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

RE: HBO's

 

Tony Kushner's work is genius~

 

Just finished watching the first installment on HBO(HD) and what an amazing ensemble cast they put together.

 

I had seen Patrick Wilson (Joe) in different things on Broadway, but his performance here was head & shoulders above anything he's done so far. Just amazing. Pacino was good as well. Nice to see him play it down a little, without interjecting too many 'Pacino-isims' that made movies like 'Devil's Advocate' strangely humerous at times...

 

I am constantly amazed by Meryl Streep. Her versatility in this ministry (along with Emma Thompson's) is a real treat to watch. They're not going over-the-top with their characterizations, but merely adding a little spice to the conglomerative soup. Mary-Louise Parker has always been one of my favorite actresses & getting to experience her finding the dark humor in Harper is a joy. She puts the perfect twist on her valium-tinged wording, while bringing subtle humor to some pretty serious moments in the play.

 

Kushner's words & situations ring as true today as they did in the '80s, bringing this horrible epipdemic to light for a whole younger (and wider) audience. Whether they are watching it or not remains to be seen, but the message it brings is clear. I found it incredibly tough to sit and watch this, as (like some of you guys) i have had family & friends pass from AIDS complications. Even though i have read and seen both plays (Millenium/Perestrokia), things still got to me tonight as i watched...

 

 

A truly amazing movie IMO. If you don't have HBO, please go out and rent the film when it hits DVD/VHS.

 

 

Warmest Always,

 

 

 

Benjamin Nicholas

[tedbear]

RE: HBO's

 

I saw with with friends and it was powerful. In some ways, I liked it better than the play.

 

As the ambulance was bringing Pryor home to his lonely apartment, it hit me hard that 13 years ago today, my best friend was brought home to his lonely apartment, where he died a few hours later. Needless to say, I lost it!

 

Those were rough times, but they're getting bad again today. Today's news said that infection rates were up 60% in some cities.

[Rod Hagen]

RE: HBO's

 

Do we agree with the New York Times: "The most powerful screen adaptation of an American Stage Production since Kazan's Streetcare Named Desire"?

[Guest alanm]

Justin Kirk

 

Justin Kirk's performance as Prior has not been mention yet. Kirk is

perhaps too good looking to be an ideal Prior. Although his looks really highlight the breakup with Louis, in a way the play did not in NY, with the wonderful actor Stephen Spinella as Prior. Not many people would leave Justin Kirk unless they are carrying a lot of baggage, which Louis clearly is.

 

Kirk is also very good in drag and as the sexual aggressor in Central

Park. Sometimes on stage ("Love! Valour! Campassion!" and "10 Unknowns," Kirk seems to be trying too hard to be good, I did not get that feeling last night. He has a very large role next week also, let's see what he does with the strong scenes.

[phage]

RE: HBO's

 

I turned it off after the scene with Pryor crawling down the hallway unable to breath or control his bowels. Maybe if I hadn’t been there in real life with someone I loved more than life itself, I would have been able to find something entertaining about it. Instead, I found it depressing, dreary and unflinchingly horrible to watch and wasn’t about to wade through six hours of pain to see if there was some uplifting tidbit to be found.

[VaHawk]

RE: HBO's

 

I'm sorry you felt this way, but I can understand how you feel, having lived thru those times myself and having dealt with this with many, many people that I loved. There is no uplifiting ending, just as there is with AIDS, itself.

 

I found this to be an overpowering, mesmerizing performance that really hits home about the horror of the early stages of the AIDS virus. What purpose does it serve to hide from this very real depiction of life in the gay community during the 80's?

 

Many of us who lived thru it, and watched many friends and lovers die,

have to wonder, to paraphrase Pryor, "why them" and "why not me". IMO, this was the most poignant line, as I heard it so many, many times. I'll never forget the anger, the resentment, the anguish and the tears of hoplessness of those "sentenced to death" when they asked that question.

 

I hope that all young gay men see this movie and realize that despite their false sense of security due to medical advances, they could still end up like Pryor and stop engaging in unsafe sex. And I hope all people will see this movie and realize that this is still a sentence of death for millions of people all over the world, gay and str8 alike. Too many people have forgotten the horror of AIDS as it does not get the attention by either the media or the entertainment industry that it did back in the 80's and early 90's.

[spiro3]

RE: HBO's

 

Thanks for the seven sensitive, intelligent responses (and only one flame!) (note to Ben: are you SURE you’re only 21?)

 

Rarely does a production, for me, exceed the hype, but this one certainly did.

 

At the risk of oversimplifying, the play seems to be an attempt to show (among so many other things) how gays in the 80’s took their best shot at how to deal with being so in a far more repressed time than the present: Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) by parsing the distinction between powerful and cloutless homosexuals ( in a memorable scene with his doctor, boasting that he is only “10 digits” away from Nancy Reagan, so how could he be gay?), the deeply closeted Mormon Joe Pitt ( whose only relief was cruising Central Park), or Prior Walter/ Lewis ( living openly as a gay couple despite the growing menace of the AIDS epidemic).

 

The brilliance of the play was that the typical stereotypes of gay men weren’t trotted out as Hollywood is in the habit of doing, neither saint nor victim, flamer nor criminal, but characters who inspire some degree of empathy and /or admiration , even the self-loathing and loathsome Cohn.

 

As Phage has pointed out, at times the production is almost too painful to watch. Joe Pitt’s scenes with his “pill popping” wife particularly resonated with me……but just when things start to get too heavy , Kutchner tosses in a hilarious line ( ala Steep’s line to the homeless lady, as Pierrot mentions above).

 

Can’t wait to see the next three hours……

[Guest coololdguy]

RE: HBO's

 

I sobbed and sobbed some more but for some reason I needed to see it. I watched my younger brother suffer the most God awful death. He was one of the first and lived only 8 weeks after his diagnosis. I was closeted -- he was not. A huge hospital in Washington DC (I don't remember the name) Many of the nurses would not touch him and some didn't even want to go into his room. He was in an isolated ward and I tried to take care of him -- emptied his bed pans -- tried to bath him -- he had gone blind. I didn't know what to say to him other than I loved him. I was so terrified and alone. It was an experience from which I will never fully recover. I know there are members here who have worse memories than mine -- lovers or multiple friends they lost -- please forgive me but I just needed to tell someone tonight.

[VaHawk]

RE: HBO's

 

Hey man, you don't need to ask forgiveness. You sound like a beautiful person, and you did the absolutely most wonderful thing a man could do for his brother. You were there when he needed it most, loving him, comforting him and easing both his physical pain and the mental pain of rejection as a fellow human being. You don't need forgiveness for you have done nothing to be forgiven for, you deserve praise for the love in your heart and soul.

 

With the passing of the years, I believe many have forgotten the pain, the horror and the camaraderie of the gay community coming together to fight a common enemy. I don't believe the gay community will ever be together as one as much as it was then, especially as the men and women from that time pass away with the passage of time.

 

Hopefully, this movie will help the younger men and women know what it was like back then, and vow never to let it happen again.

 

Your post really touched me, and I'm sure your brother is smiling at you from the after life for sharing your story. Thank you for posting.

[+ deej]

RE: HBO's

 

Like VAHawk, I applaud you.

 

In my early 20's, I took turns with my mother nursing my father through the final stages of death from cancer. We dealt with bedpans, bed sores, and all of the things normally associated with caring for the terminally ill. I spelled her so she could go off and cry in private.

 

None of that prepared me for the horror of AIDS losses or the rapidfire way they came about.

 

I sat on my sofa watching this show with two friends, both of them escorts oddly enough, alternately clenching hands tightly and exchanging hugs and tears. We all have our own stories, if we're old enough to remember "back then".

 

This production is incredibly well done and I hope it makes a new generation wake up and smell the coffee.

 

I don't actually want to watch part II, but I will. It's a riveting telling of something many of us lived through and hope to God we don't have to live through again.

[jimbeaux]

RE: HBO's

 

It's difficult to think that any out gay man over 30 (a category in which I most definitely fall) hasn't experienced the trauma of having a close friend or lover suffer and die from the AIDS virus. Many times throughout the day, in the most unlikely situations and at the most unlikely times, I find myself remembering some harrowing experience that I thought was long ago buried. I'm always amazed at how much I'm still affected. We shouldn't kid ourselves, the raw nerves exposed by AIDS have much more healing to do.

 

I had the privilege of seeing this play on Broadway with the great Kathleen Chalfant and Ron Liebman doing the Streep and Pacino roles. This TV adaptation by Nichols is every bit as spellbinding and heart rending. That such beautiful form can be given to such a horrible scourge says much about how beauty and art can come from the ugliest of horrors.

[phage]

RE: HBO's

 

>What purpose does it serve to hide from this

>very real depiction of life in the gay community during the

>80's?

 

Sanity. I just have to close my eyes and let down the mental walls that I’ve thrown up and I’m back in the moment. The worst moment of my life.

 

I can’t seem to find the right comparison. A rape victim watching a movie that contains rape after rape? A Holocaust survivor watching a death camp movie? I can see that some might find it cathartic, but I’ll have to leave it to those with thicker skins.

[BobbyB]

RE: HBO's

 

>Tony Kushner's work is genius~

>

> I am constantly amazed by Meryl Streep. Her versatility in

>this ministry (along with Emma Thompson's) is a real treat to

>watch. They're not going over-the-top with their

>characterizations, but merely adding a little spice to the

>conglomerative soup. Mary-Louise Parker has always been one

>of my favorite actresses & getting to experience her finding

>the dark humor in Harper is a joy. She puts the perfect twist

>on her valium-tinged wording, while bringing subtle humor to

>some pretty serious moments in the play.>

>

>A truly amazing movie IMO. If you don't have HBO, please go

>out and rent the film when it hits DVD/VHS.

 

 

Benjamin,

 

I couldn't agree more. Angels In America raises the bar to a level I have never seen before in cinema. Ever. I'm glad I was alone when I saw it because I'd be hard pressed to explain the unmanly puddle I became. The only argument I have with your assessment about Meryl Streep is that you've understated her performance. I, too, have always enjoyed her performances, but I am sorry, Beji Baby, she is nothing short of a National Treasure. Not just because she gives a caliber of performance I don't think has ever been seen before, but because she raises those around her to new and dizzying heights. Emma Thompson is, simply put, Meryl's English equivalent. I had no idea that so many people were playing so many different roles until the credits rolled at the end. I gasped so many times, I can't explain why I'm conscious. I am still drunk with the experience and still reeling from the orgy of visuals. I am boggled that this is the same medium that, at one time, was universally proclaimed as a great wasteland. In the last year & a half, I have found myself having to tape two stellar programs while watching a third. But as wonderful as television has become in recent months/years, Angels In America has left me feeling like Moses before the burning bush.

 

- BobbyB

[+ Lucky]

RE: HBO's

 

You are conscious, drunk, reeling, boggled and feeling like Moses before the burning bush. All at once?

[BobbyB]

RE: HBO's

 

>You are conscious, drunk, reeling, boggled and feeling like

>Moses before the burning bush. All at once?

 

Yes...which explains why my tummy's just a tad upset. Uh oh....

 

 

- BobbyB