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Angels In America (HBO) [2003]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining US 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 theatre-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, 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) 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)--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), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, 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

Editorial
Synopsis

In transferring Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the small screen, director Mike Nichols has crafted a profound, ambitious masterpiece. The film follows a sprawling group of characters as they navigate their way through the cutthroat New York City of the 1980s, when AIDS began to rear its ugly head. Getting sicker by the minute, Prior Walter is abandoned by his tormented lover, Louis (Ben Shenkman); deluded lawyer Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is visited by Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he helped to condemn; and the pill-popping Harper (Mary-Louis Parker) is on the verge of losing her sanity when she realises that her husband, Joe (Patrick Wilson), is a closet homosexual.
Like the best works of art, Nichols' production doesn't merely reflect a particular chapter in America's history. It floats deeper, into a world where everyday feelings are elevated to a spiritual realm. Already hailed as a modern classic, ANGELS IN AMERICA is one of the medium's crowning achievements.

Piece of art
Review date: 2008-07-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

There is no review that even in 10 _ would describe how amazing this film is. Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thomson in roles of their lives. IT'S A MUST SEE!

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Reviews


So true to our phantasms
Review date: 2008-05-19 Rating: 10 out of 10

Welcome to New York in Reagan's time, in the days when Reagan declared that AIDS was a divine punishment to homosexuals. And AIDS are taking their toll on gay men in New York City. All kinds, from the prudent to the careless, from the loving and lovable to the hateful and spiteful. But indeed the film is not about that, them and their types, or even those who can afford AZT or not. It is about love and what love can be, how love can be revealed when confronted to some treachery, or what looks like some treachery though it is only fright in front of the disease for some or coming out of the closet for others. Add to that a new born homosexual who is a reaganite and a mormon at the same time, which is a lot against his new birth and a clear cut condemnation that will prevent him from being properly baptized and christened. Add to that a mormon mother taken in the whirlwind and whirlpool of this revelation and confrontation to death and how she will be able to cope for one and even save the day of several of them, including her own son. But even so, that's only one little part of the film. It then plays on the visions some have, on the angels some can see, all angels of death. Those angels take the shape of Ethel Rosenberg for the lawyer who managed to get her death penalty. The angels also take the shape of a real female angel with wings and all that is able to take a couple more to their death, lead them to the ladder, Jacob's ladder that leads straight up to heavens. But that both Christian and Jewish imagery and symbolism is not enough to satisfy the baroque taste of the director. Heaven is not going to be the garden you may think it is. It is a vast ruined temple and city where some clerk or even bureaucrats are managing the fate of the dead from behind a long table piled up with files and papers, and the prophet who is probably not as Jewish as many others refuses to abide by their decision and demands more life and he does go back to life, he resurrects in a way. And this leads to the end of Reagan, of the cold war, the perestroika and Gorbachev, and a new era in the world. If only they could have known this new era was going to lead to eight years of absolutely nightmarish regression, two wars, and a lot of terrorism amplified and multiplied by the war-mongering of a vengeful tribe of American politicians who did not deserve to be appointed to their positions, and I say appointed since they were not elected properly, at least for those who should have been elected. In retrospect the joy of 1990, January 1990 mind you, hardly three months after the fall of the Berlin Wall was going to be rather short-lived and be buried in the sex-play of a president and then the bellicose vengeful adventures of another. Altogether by far nearly sixteen years lost to the phantasms of two men. Yes the angels are in America, the angels of death that give you a wet dream first and lead you to death afterwards, the little death and the big death unified in one single jump into empty space and the fall through the cosmos. An amazing film that seems to reflect a whole period and at the same time to express the distantiation we have been able to build thanks to nearly twenty years of crisis and plain at times painful living.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


A 10 Star MASTERPIECE
Review date: 2008-04-23 Rating: 10 out of 10

I was fortunate to have seen this great play on the stage, then sat up in the early hours watching it on TV in episodes, and now, the wonder of the film masterpiece.
The acting, Direction, photography, set design and the score are absolutely the best I have ever experienced in a long life of watching great films.
I honestly can not find the words to describe this incredible film.
I urge everyone to see this wonderful film at least once.


"You believe the world is perfectable and so you find it unsatisfying"
Review date: 2008-03-26 Rating: 8 out of 10

"You believe the world is perfectable and so you find it unsatisfying. You have to reconcile yourself to the world's unperfectability."

These words, spoken from one man to another on a deserted Long Island beach on a blustery sunny day, speak to the heart of this tale.

This is a multi-award winning filmed version of Tony Kushner's multi-award winning Broadway play. Set in 1985 Manhattan, it's all about ... well, it's all about Jews and Mormons, gays and straights, justice and lawyers, holes in the ozone layer, Reagan, little blue pills and green capsules, dreams and hallucinations, AIDS, passing blood, doubts, confessions, angels and burning ladders to heaven. OK? It's also about laughter, tears, wit, love, hate. It's a melodramatic whimsy, but subject to damn good writing and acting.

As for the acting, how can you go wrong with multiple parts played by Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and Jeffrey Wright; with a knock-out performance by Al Pacino; and with cameos by James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow? The central supporting cast led by Patrick Wilson and Ben Shenkman is outstanding.

Alas, no extras.




WORST EVER MOVIE ON TV>>EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
Review date: 2007-08-18 Rating: 2 out of 10

NO NO NO!!!!!!!
Are the people who praise this programme on a mass dose of class A drugs???
Seriously, even a huge injection of morphine would not make this time-wasting, boring, self-indulgent, meaningless, and YES over-acted drama (not that it deserves that title) worth watching...
I love the actors in this piece, Justin Kirk and Mary-Louise Parker are brilliant in WEEDS, Pacino and Streep, 2 of the best actors ever but how could they have put their names to this?
I watched the whole 6 hours and realised that the only thing I had discovered was a cure to my insomnia..
and yes it did make me laugh in all the wrong places.
There are great American series out there: Sopranos, Nip/Tuck, The Wire, Entourage, Weeds etc
BUT
do not devote 6 hours to this utter rubbish....
it certainly wasn't dumbed- down it was just pointless. meaningless, drivel

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jeffrey Wright
Meryl Streep
Emma Thompson
Mary-Louise Parker
Al Pacino

Creators:
Al Pacino (Primary Contributor)
Meryl Streep (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900252812
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Anamorphic, Colour, Dolby, PAL,
Release date: 2004-09-13
Number of discs: 2
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 337 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2003-12-07
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Hebrew (Original Language)
Language: Yiddish (Original Language)

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