Customer Reviews

Silverlake Life - The View from Here

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I stumbled upon this documentary not too long ago on DVD and watched it this past weekend. It is a deeply moving story of Tom and Mark, two gay men who have been together for 22 years and are slowly dying of AIDS. Their lives are shown raw and uncensored. We see them for who they--two deeply caring and loving human beings just trying to cope, understand, and triumph in this mystery called Life. We also see how a horrible disease, such as AIDS, slowly ravages one's mind and body. But I think the most one can take from this documentary is the simple truth of Love, and, living the most of each day. You can not help but cry and realize how foolish we really all are with our materialistic obsessions of money, vainity, celebrities, and other nonsense. Interwoven with the lives of these two special men, we also see glimpses of such simple things--a walk in a garden, the inspiring beauty of a blooming flower, the sight of a humming bird in flight, the comfort found in their pet cat as Tom's mother seeks solace after seeing her son die. It is the simple and pure things in life, like Love and the beauty of Life, that matter. Thank you Tom and Mark for reminding us.

One night I was up late flipping through stations when I found this playing on the Sundance channel. Like many of the reviewers before me, I was just going to watch a little until something better came on. However, after 5 minutes I couldn't take my eyes off the screen and my heart and emotions were 100% into this couple dealing with AIDS. At the end of this movie I cried as though these people were friends of mine. It touched me so much I have spent months trying to find its name. If you haven't seen it- BUY NOW! This documentary is a true life lesson for everyone- teaching the importance of living your life to the fullest, telling your loved ones how much you care for them every moment you can and for those who STILL do not believe there is such thing as true love in a ... relationship- this couple will show you a love that few people (straight or otherwise) will ever have.

A gay couple who both suddenly fall victim to the disease of AIDS, decide to film their lives as the disease slowly robs one of them of his health, mental faculties and finally life . One of the man's disease is much more progressed then the other's so the healthy one does much to care for his dieing lover during most of the film. Short of showing actual sex, this movie leaves nothing out. It shows the grim reality of this disease , in full unbiased view, and makes no attempt to voice any political message. The man's disease progresses from lesions, demensia, and yes , actual death . The movie is just as much about death as it is about AIDS itself, and shows the man's reaction as he discovers that his lover is finally dead. Even the dead body of the man is shown in full view, as it is wrapped up and carried off by the corroner. As a straight man, I found this movie very educational and actually recommend that all young adults see it, for it is also an effective reminder of the consequence of unsafe sex, as well as understanding gay relationships .

As another reviewer mentioned, I saw this when it aired on PBS back in the early 90s. And also as another stated, I had no intention of watching the whole thing. But I found myself drawn into this documentary in a manner that I have never been before or since. I have rarely, if ever, had a movie touch me in the way this one has.

The movie makes no pretense or statement about living life with full-blown AIDS. It is poigniant in every respect, showing the simple realities of life, and death.

After watching this movie, I would also suggest taking time to view 'And The Band Played On' about the U.S. reaction to the AIDS epidemic in the mid-80s.

This is the best documentary I've ever seen. At the end of it I cried until I couldn't breathe. The emotions and experiences of these two men are so honest and so beautiful. The love they shared was so real and so deep. I just can't say enough about the film. It'll stay with you.

Being your basic "guy", I can remember the documentaries I've seen that have made me cry - there are maybe half a dozen.

This one made me bawl. There's very little in the history of the moving image that can touch this treatment of love.

There's a simple, terrible trajectory here as these two men take us through the last days of their lives. They are bright and funny, charming company - they are also two of the strongest men I've ever seen on film.

I kept wondering: "What would I do? If I was them... If they were my loved ones..."

Sit down, hold someone close and watch. It just may re-shape how you see love, liberation and loss.

Late one night in 1995 pbs aired silverlake life. I didn't intend to watch all of it. I liken it to the diference in me before I was a parent and life afer I was a parent. I was deeply moved and thought about the movie constantly for a week. It pails in comparison to Philadeliphia Story. More of a love story than aids story.

In the summer of 1993 I had just graduated high school from a small rural farming community and was deeply in the closet. One July night I turned on PBS and caught Silverlake Life about 1/4 of the way through and watched through to the end. I cried hard for so many reasons. Until that point, I had never seen a loving gay relationship before in my sheltered existence. I didn't even know that it was possible, yet here it was right in front of me. For the first time I believed that maybe love was possible for me, and maybe there were options for me that I never knew existed. That weight lifted off my heart owned half of the emotion I was feeling. The other half was reserved for the fact of the inevitability of the situation at hand. Experiencing the loss along with them, quite vividly at that, helped me come to an understanding of life's up and downs, and how it is meant to be lived no matter what the circumstances. This move was also the first documentary I ever watched, and began a life-long obsession with good documentary films. Definitely one to watch and own.

As a gay man born in 1979, I grew up in the shadow of AIDS, but my generation was too young to witness firsthand the epidemic of illness and death that swept through the gay community in the '80s and early '90s. I've never had to witness a close friend or loved one get sick and wither away from this illness. In a sense, my generation of gay men is very fortunate. We know about safe sex, how to avoid HIV, and if we do become positive, there are life-saving treatments available. But on the other hand, because we didn't witness the epidemic of the '80s and '90s, many younger gay men have never had to face the realities of AIDS. AIDS is rarely a major news story in the American media anymore unless it concerns the African AIDS epidemic. We don't see images of AIDS sufferers. I watched this film because I wanted to see what AIDS really looks like.

The images in this film affected me more deeply than any film I've ever seen. It doesn't surprise me that this is a relatively unknown and obscure documentary; it's simply too real and too sad. It's one of the few films I've seen that dares to look directly at death. The men in this film were incredibly brave and noble souls who documented their suffering so that the world could see the effects of this disease. This film should be required viewing for any young gay man who thinks AIDS is "over" or that it is a "manageable disease".

I saw this as a teen when it was on PBS. I didn't have a very well-formed conception of what it meant to be gay or exactly what AIDS/HIV wrought upon its victims. For some reason, I didn't remember that they were both infected and thought that one had managed to stay "clean," that really changes the way I interpret some of this film. That's another topic, though. What this film did do is shape a lot of my views on the way forward, I remember writing an email to a friend after I saw it, still shaken, and saying that I'd never wish that upon my worst enemy (and meaning the old cliché quite literally).

We never talked about gay issues (e.g. rights) in my house, but it was kind of assumed that they were somewhat inhuman and that AIDS was sort of divine wrath. But here were these good, normal, loving people, afflicted with a terrible disease that I "wouldn't have wished...etc." If I couldn't imagine wishing this on someone whom I personally hated, how could this seem even remotely right?

Some people might not like this because it "humanizes homosexuals" but I'm so glad that I saw this. Yeah, I know that consciously recognizing that gay people are worthy of being labeled as human doesn't seem like a big step, but this film certainly put me on a better trajectory. Have someone in your life who likes to call things "gay" or just gets a kick out of gay/AIDS joke? Show him/her this.

One thing's for sure-- you'll never hear "You Are My Sunshine" the same way again.