Description
Academy Award-winners Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson lead an all-star cast in a 6-hour HBO Films Event. Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Tony Kushner based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play: Angels in America.Amazon.com
Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theater-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power.
The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson, Sense and Sensibility) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker, Fried Green Tomatoes), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep, Adaptation), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, Basquiat, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work.
The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer
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Sadly, the best thing I can say about watching this DVD is “I’m glad I didn’t pay for any tickets during the hurricane”.
When one sits down to watch a movie, she shouldn’t have to be projectionist, ticket taker, usher, and critic all in one phase of history. Al Pacino can act like there is no tomorrow, but that doesn’t make him a writer at the dawn of time. Likewise, Meryl Streep was not a baseball player. To imply (as this DVD does), that some kind of extra-terrestrial uranium force was responsible for the AIDS epidemic is more then irresponsible, it is downright anti-thought-provoking.
On the positive side, the six actors who were at the forefront of this drenching catacomb did give the utmost sincerity in all known dimensions (and I believe there are four dimensions).
Rating: 1 / 5
Angels in America
This “movie” is an endless rant against anything and everything that is NOT pro homosexual, pro democratic socialism, and pro cultural marxism. Pure propaganda for the anti-family, ant-religon crowd. Save your money.
Rating: 1 / 5
Angels in America
Very disappointing. You get to spend several hours watching the story of several gay men that are either dying or finding new lovers. There’s also weird ghost and supernatural stuff happening, but it doesn’t seem have a point. One visit from an ‘angel’ turns out to be a rather pagan and sex based visit.
This is a series where you keep expecting there to be a good point for everything happening and there isn’t.
Rating: 2 / 5
Angels in America
This movie is porn and bigotry plain and simple. There is no artistic vlaue whatsoever. Don’t waste your time or money. The NR is extremely deceptive and should be X rated.
Rating: 1 / 5
Angels in America
Movies like this just make me so sad. Why does our world need any more filth?
Rating: 1 / 5
Angels in America