Customer Reviews

Angels in America

5 star:		(145)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

A jaw-dropping film adaptation of Tony Kushner's epic, 5-hour play, which was a defining artistic statement documenting the political and social upheaval that AIDS-HIV disease brought to America's gay community and to the wider America around it. Mixing agitprop and camp with magical realism and utter, heart-rending, pathos, Kushner and director Mike Nichols bring the story to the screen in a big, big way, with all-around amazing performances by a perfectly cast ensemble. Al Pacino gets to chew up yards of scenery in his portrayal of the sleazy, venal, far-rightwing attorney Roy Cohn (who acted as Joe McCarthy's point man in the infamous 1950s prosecution of "atom spies" Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) and for once, all of Pacino's high-decibel yelling pays off with some real dramatic ooompf.

There are a lot of things that you could comment on in this play -- the exploration of Jewish-American assimilation, the powerful reaffirmation of a supposedly marginalized leftist perspective, etc. -- but the most profound insight Kushner has to offer is about who the real redeeming angels will have to be in our nation's coming cultural reconciliation. The humanity that he is able to impart into the character of the middle-American Mormon, Mother Pitt (played faultlessly by Meryl Streep), is a marvel of modern political drama: and it rings undeniably true. Pushing past our narrowly defined social and political "roles," and into our shared humanity, is the only road open to folks who want to see America's moral and ethical core liberated from the ideological intrusions of the religious far-right, and the resulting frustrated anger of the disenfranchised middle-liberal-left. In a strictly us-vs-them world view, Mother Pitt would be derided by those on the we're-here-we're-queer Left... but as many people have learned, particularly amid the devastating upheavals of the HIV crisis, our real emotional lives are (ideally) not ruled by dogma. Mother Pitt isn't just a caring parent, she's also a kind, pragmatic person, and for her, the most pragmatic choice when confronted with an epidemic, is to simply offer sympathy and solace. What could be more natural? Let's hope her example prevails.

My expectations were high when I learned that HBO was going to spend over $60 million on an adaptation of Tony Kushner's extraordinary 6-hour epic play, but I could nt have imagined that the resulting film would move to the top of my list of best films ever made in the United States - but that is precisely what Angels in America has done.

Streep and Pacino deliver the finest performances of their careers here (Streep in 4 roles!). Emma Thompson is radiant. And the performances of Jeffrey Wright, Mary-Louise Parker, Justin Kirk and Ben Shenkman positively shine.

And the WRITING and DIRECTION! As close to Shakespearean as any American work I have ever read. And scenes that captivate in their composition and lighting, in their structure and their content. And a magical blending of profundity, humor, pathos, tragedy, and ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit over desperation and resignation. A musical score to match the high levels of word and vision.

In short, this film is nothing short of miraculous. All who worked on this masterpiece should be proud of their achievement. Angels in America stands as testimony to what the human mind can accomplish at its finest and most creative.

Many people get stuck on the fact that Angels In America contains many gay themes, and it's sad. The themes in this film run so far beyond gays and into every vein of American society. I challenge everyone to view this film or see the play even if you are vehemently anti-gay. I guarantee it will open your eyes to a picture much much bigger than you can ever imagine. I don't believe this movie at any time condemns anyone for their beliefs, it simply asks us to evaluate our beliefs, and to question the status quo.

I was a lighting designer for a production of this (both parts!) while I was in college, and it opened my eyes then. To see a movie made of it is simply wonderful. I think Kushner did a wonderful job translating it for the screen. The director I worked under always said this play was really a film, and he was absolutely right.

I refuse to call this a movie because to me a movie is just another thing to watch. This is truly a film. It is film at it's finest, coming together with theatre to truly touch our hearts. Please, see this film. You will walk away asking yourself more questions than you ever thought possible.

The shocking intolerance on display below, in some of the negative reviews of this production, is one of the main subjects of this series, and only helps to show how direly we need productions like this one. It ought to be broadcast on prime time national TV. Much of Angels is about how 'keeping up appearances' can destroy people's lives; its core subject is the fundamentally inhuman nature of conservatism. The Angels are "cosmic reactionaries", as one character has it; one of them (Emma Thompson) descends on the main protagonist, Prior Walter (Justin Kirk), to tell him that people have to stop moving. Movement shakes up Heaven, which relies on stasis, eternal sameness. Walter is promoted to a "prophet" of this message, a mission he grapples with but ultimately refuses. This central story interweaves with his conflicted relationship with Louis (Ben Shenkman), his politically engaged liberal boyfriend who runs out on him because he can't deal with the ravages of Prior's illness, AIDS. Louis in turn upsets the marriage of valium-addicted Harper (Marie Louise Parker) and closeted homosexual attorney Joe (Patrick Wilson). Joe breaks away from his stifling routines, much to the dismay of his Mormon mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), who comes over from Salt Lake City to intervene, and ends up finding typical (or even "stereotypical") homosexuals not quite as bad as she thought. Harper meanwhile escapes into her own Antarctic dream world. Another person not pleased is Joe's employer, none other than Roy Cohn (Al Pacino), a viciously homophobic homosexual, who tells his doctor that he hasn't got AIDS, but liver cancer. This of course doesn't save him from a lonely AIDS-death, haunted by the specter of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), whom he put on the electric chair in the fifties through corrupt manipulation of the justice system. All these manifold plots are connected by the character of Belize (Jeffrey Wright), an "ex ex drag queen" who is Cohn's nurse, Prior's ex lover and Louis's friend, and clearly the morally superior force in the play.
Angels is incredibly rich and complex; the writing is terrific. The brilliant surface of Angels, that abounds in wit, tragedy, humanity, political debate, campiness, even occasional sentimentality, conceals a multi-layered message of universal appeal. The acting in this production fully realizes the text in all its dimensions. (Pacino's brilliant performance attains an extra edge due to his uncanny physical resemblance to Cohn - just take a look at Mapplethorpe's terrifically horrific portrait of that man, and than watch Pacino: it's chilling.)

The blatant factual falsehoods contained in some of the negative reviews demand contradiction. Some people would have you believe this is an X-rated film, but the references to "explicit sex scenes" in several reviews are utterly exaggerated. There are exactly two scenes in the whole series that, with a considerable stretch of the imagination, could be called explicit. Neither of them involve nudity, both are of tragic rather than erotic portent, and one (the much maligned Central Park encounter) is mainly ludicrously absurd and comical. The supposedly "explicit" sexual activity in these scenes in total accounts for less than a minute of the whole six hours of the series.
Several actors play double or triple roles, not to show off their versatility or to let the make-up department have a ball or whatever, but simply because the original play dictates it that way (I will not go into the symbolic depths hiding behind this device). Many viewers of this series seem completely unaware that this is a faithful televization of a tremendously successful two-part stage play. That people hungry for superficial entertainment run into their video rental store and take home anything with an appealing box cover without having a clue what it is, ending up shocked or disappointed, seems to me to be their own fault, not that of the film at hand.

It is very simple: if your are of conservative or religious bent, or a homophobic, you will quite probably hate AinA. So don't watch it - problem solved. But you will deprive yourself of simply the greatest thing ever made for American television.

I'm not joking.

I'll be frank: I was hyped up for this film. Even ignoring the incredible play that is actually life changing, it has a stellar cast and incredible behind the scenes crew. I wanted it to be good; I needed it to be good. To say that it superceded my expectations is an understatement.

This play/movie challenges and provokes; entertains and amuses; floods you with grief and compassion. Those final words (which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it) make my heart sing. It features career defining work from Streep, Parker, Wilson and Pacino (Streep in particular is stellar in three different roles), and what had better be career exploding roles for Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, and Jeffrey Wright. These gentlemen are doing work that they'll have a hard time topping. Wright manages to take Kushner's poetry and transform it into something Whitmanesque, Shakespearean in it's grandeur and heartbreaking imagery. He does more with a glance than most actors can do with an entire script. Patrick Wilson makes Joe's pain so real that it's heartwrenching for the audience. When he utters "I'm going to hell for doing this", you can't help but cry out in sympathy. Kirk is phenomenal as our leading character - he mixes pathos with deep (and broad) humour, and not only provides the biggest laughs (well, Wright too), but it's only because the comedy is rooted in pain. Shenkman has the most difficult role - he's the author's stand in. He's also kinda unsympathetic, and his hyperintelligence isn't portrayed as well as it should be (director/writer, not actor), but Shenkman manages to pull of these disparate pieces into a cohesive whole.

I'm giving it five stars not because it's perfect (indeed, there are a few little flaws), but because anything this good doesn't need to be perfect. Anything with this much stuff, in terms of ideas, drama, humour, depth and profundity is reall quite something. The opening credits are gorgeous (seriously breathtaking. That's how good this movie is).

Watch it, treasure it, remember it, and whenever someone bashes Hollywood for producing crap, remind them that it can also produce beautiful things. This is one of them

I just watched this on DVD, and all I can say is "Bravo." Amazing that something this superb actually appeared on TV first. The acting was incredible and the story imaginiative and compelling. I am a straight white woman (jsut for the record, as I noticed some reviewers think that only gay men will be interested in this)and having worked in healthcare during the 80s, this is right on target. And for those who think this is uncalled for Republican bashing, well, in 1985, 25,000 people had already died of AIDS and the Reagan administration was trying to pretend that it didn't exist. In fact, it was over five years after the first published reports of AIDS appeared, that Reagan actually made a public statement about it. By the time the govt really acted, AIDS had spread into far and wide, way beyond the gay community. But because in the early days, it was restricted to gay men and IV drug users, the conservatives Republicans in power looked at AIDS as a "moral" issue. So now, is there any reason to wonder why there was so much Republican bashing in this movie? You have to look at things in their historical context.

This is one of the best productions I have ever seen. When I think of all the people that died, because of our government's inaction, it does make me ill. You can catch glimpses of that in this movie, as to how AZT, the only AIDS drug available at the time, could only be gotten by the privileged few.

Angels in America is truly a wonderful piece of art. I was so deeply moved by every single episode that I actually had trouble focusing on anything else after I finished watching it. Mike Nichols manages to combine the finest poetry with the most atrocious actuality. The acting performances are also exceptional. I especially enjoyed Justin Kirk's portrayal of Prior Walter. He acts with such truthfulness and authenticity and truly manages to capture the thoughts of a desperate man who's not able to accept his own destiny.
My thoughts are; if you'll only watch one thing this entire year, watch this.

Set in 1980s New York and subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," the six-hour ANGELS IN AMERICA concerns a group of largely gay men who find themselves caught up in series of disasters that range from love to religion and from politics to philosophy--and most specifically caught between the rising tide of AIDS and a generally unsympathetic society.

In the midst of this, AIDS patient Prior Walter begins to have a series of visions, which may be fever dreams, medicine-induced hallucinations... or, most unnerving of all, real. His long dead ancestors rise to speak to him, the floor cracks open to reveal a burning book--and at the conclusion of the play's first half a beautiful woman with majestic wings crashes through his roof. She is the Angel of America. He is, she tells him, a prophet, and she has come to bring him a message for mankind.

Intertwined with Prior's other-earthly experiences are oddly parallel lives. Joe and Harper Pitt are a deeply dysfunctional couple doubting their faith in the Mormon Church, Joe a closeted homosexual, Harper a valium-addicted and mildly psychotic woman given to visions as strange as those of Prior Walter's. And as further counterpoint historical figure Roy Cohn (1927-1986), among the most sinister figures of 20th Century America, finds himself taunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he drifts toward his own AIDS-induced death. The characters swirl in and out of each other's lives and dreams, playing to stereotypes and yet defying them, arguing politics and philosophy and love and death--and it is fascinating stuff.

Although the play stunned 1990s audiences, most considered it utterly unfilmable due to both length and content. But this HBO-produced, Mike Nichols-directed version not only captures the power of the original, in some ways it improves upon it. Playwright Tony Kushner has adapted his work to the screen, rearranging certain problematic scenes and bits of dialogue to better effect, and certainly no one could argue with the cast, which is absolutely stunning in a series of multiple roles.

With a mad swirl of irony, intense drama, outrageous humor, and unexpected twists and turns, ANGELS IN AMERICA is almost sure to hold your attention--particularly if you recall the Ronald Reagan years well enough to recognize the truly bitter allegory the film offers on what many consider his largely absentee second term. Truly a must have, multi-layered, bearing repeated viewings, beautifully directed, performed, and filmed.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I'll be blunt: this miniseries nearly left me in pieces after I completed it in one night. I was tired and irritable thte following day at school, but it didn't matter. 'Angels' is one of the finest miniseries in recent memory, and like Roots, is an absolute must have for your library.

Capturing the 1980's in an entertaining fashion, the film centers around the lives of three groups: homosexual couple Louis and Prior, disgruntled husband/wife Joe and Harper (though Joe happens to be a closeted homosexual himself, and a mormon too--sheesh) and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn.

As Prior is diagnosed with AIDS in a time when the disease was met with both fear and ignorance, Louis leaves him and seeks a relationship with Joe, all the while when his wife Harper is having what is either a series of hallucinations or heavenly visions--we are left to decide.

While in the throes of agonizing pain, Prior is visited by a true angel, sent from heaven to seek out " the prophet" in order to do good in a world that had gone so wrong.

The miniseries, six hours long, covers a multitude of topics, from AIDS and sexuality to mental illnes and politics, all the while never straying from its true path: to enlighten those who might have otherwise remained ignorant as to the millions of Americans who suffer from AIDS. For they truly are the Angels of America, citizens who face an uncertain future with the bravery and compassion that many of us will never come to know.

The performances are outstanding, featuring an all star cast of Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Patrick Wilson and Mary Louise Parker, to name a few. Truly a virtuoso performance by all those involved, they truly carried the miniseries to dizzying heights, and far exceeded my expectations.

While I would like to think one day this miniseries will be shown in High Schools across the country, for now, I absolutely insist that you either rent, purchase or borrow this work of art in the near future. Pieces like this only come around on very rare occassions, and when they do, we owe it to ourselves to give them the time they deserve!

This was the most involving and intellectually stimulating piece of filmed theater that I have ever seen. I was reluctant to rent this as I thought it would be a predictable, mindless and vulgar soap opera for urban gay people with little to interest anyone else. It is anything but. This is a story told with an epic sweep and deals intelligently - and sometimes brilliantly - with everything from politics, American immigrants, Roy Cohn, Mormonism, theology, angels, and family to the Reagan years and AIDS. I am anything but a liberal - I am a Bush conservative - but a great piece of writing is a great piece of writing no matter what the point of view. And "Angels" is a great script. This is a six hour movie but director Mike Nichols has it zipping along at such a fast clip that there isn't a dull moment. Don't let your distaste for (or boredom with) movies with gay sub-plots keep you from this one; you'll be missing out on a great film. The entrance of the Angel at the end of part one is unforgettable and one of the most spectacular pieces of film in the last decade. Pacino gives a great, intense performance as Roy Cohn that doesn't have him chewing up the scenery and becoming a parody of himself. Mary Louise Parker does a great job as Harper, the emotionally ill Mormon wife who comes across as Marie Osmond on ecstasy and LSD. The movie is a rarity - a grand, sweeping epic that is so ambitious that you remember why movies can be so wonderful. Excellent.