Les anges en Amérique

I've written some pretty negative things about American TV and movies on this web site, so maybe it's time to give praise where due. I finally - many years late I'm ashamed to say - got around to watching this HBO mini series because my kids have just appeared in a school production of The Laramie Project, in which Angels in America is mentioned many times, and I felt abysmally ignorant at not having seen it. Thank you Netflix.

I've literally just finished watching the last part, and it's made a deep impression. Very moving, very imaginatively done, beautifully written and superbly acted. Looking back over several years of prior comments on this page, I am just astonished at people who can apparently force themselves to sit through six hours of something they hated! I mean, what part of the on/off switch can't they use? Six hours? Everyone occasionally finds themselves in the cinema sitting through a couple of hours of a film they aren't enjoying, but six hours on the TV at home? People, if you don't like it, or it offends, turn it off! Plenty of brain dead TV offends me. So I don't watch it. Ultimately, it's your free choice.

I'm just a boring, middle aged woman with a couple of teenage kids, probably not the target audience, but I found AinA life affirming, and thought provoking, and I loved the visual imagery and the portrayal of homosexual relationships as just as good/bad/complicated/simple/natural/valid/selfless/selfish as heterosexual relationships. I've always adored Meryl Streep, and she lived up to my expectations here, she's my role model of a talented woman growing older gracefully. Emma Thompson pulled off her role as American angel magnificently, Mary-Louise Parker was a revelation, I was appalled by Roy Cohn, so Al Pacino obviously did a great job, and all the other characters were perfectly cast (especially Jeffrey Wright and Justin Kirk.) I couldn't take my eyes off Jeffrey Wright when he was on screen. Utterly compelling in his portrayal of an upfront gay male nurse, dealing compassionately but practically with the cold reality of dying AIDS patients in his care.

This isn't a particularly easy six hours of TV to watch, but life shouldn't always be easy should it? It's good sometimes to have to struggle a bit to understand someone else's vision. There were many perfect speeches and I'm hoping for a revival of the stage play so I can catch up with those speeches in their original format. I'm still thinking about the line (paraphrased) "Life will be unbearable for a long time before it becomes impossible". Sounds very appropriate for what we are doing to the environment in the 21st century, doesn't it, as well as HIV in the 1980s? So this film is for all times, not just the 1980s.

I wish I could put into words how deeply touched I was by this movie/ miniseries. It has haunted me since I first saw it in December. I taped it when it was shown all together on HBO Signature and purchased the playscript book. And I have the soundtrack which is so beautiful.

I loved this work. It made me think, it made me laugh, it made me mourn. The concept of God abandoning Heaven just made me weep. The utter resolve Prior displays before the Council was so uplifting...and then Hannah's desire to have them all bathe in the Fountain of Bethesda and be healed. So touching.

Each character was such an intrigal part of the delicate equation. The awards/nominations were/are all richly deserved. (SAGs are on 2/22.)

Patrick Wilson positively floored me. I'd never heard of him before and was slack jawed by his range, his depth and his delivery. His vocal inflections, modulations, etc are incredible. And, his "look" was perfect. As a straight, active (practicing) LDS woman , I can tell you that he could have been dropped into any Church meeting and he would have blended right in. Kudos to the wardrobe/hair & make-up department. Of course, though Joe's particular struggle is not representative of every man in the Church, all individuals have burdens we must handle. I could really relate to that.

The rest of the cast were equally fantastic. You know, even if the character was being despicable...you appreciated the talents and efforts of the person portraying them.

I could gush forever about this. Bravo to Tony Kushner, Mike Nichols, and the incredible cast.

There was a statement that was going through my head while watching "Angels in America": I know what art is when I see it. Just like art, this ambitious miniseries dares the viewer to have an opinion on the various subjects brought up by screenwriter/playwright Tony Kuchner.

I saw the miniseries one chapter at a time, which may or may not have been a good idea to get the full impact of the point. At least it did motivate me to read both of Kuchner's "Angels" plays.

I found it to be both a frustrating and challenging miniseries. There were the great performances by Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Justin Kirk, and Jeffrey Wright and the good performances by Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Patrick Wright and, in a small role, James Cromwell.

I find it rather humorous that some people thought Al Pacino was miscast as Roy Cohn. Though this is Kuchner's fictional view of Cohn and having seen the real Roy Cohn in television interviews, I though Pacino was not too far from the essence of who Cohn was: an ambitious but very bitter gay man in denial who helped his notable clients but was always out for himself. Cohn was rabid dog without a leash. This was Pacino's first television role and I though he did a great job. (Correction: Pacino's only television acting role prior to "Angels in America" and not including the edited version of "The Godfather Saga" was the short-lived but critically-acclaimed ABC drama "N.Y.P.D." (1967-69).

I did have a few problems with the mini-series. The role played by Ben Shenkman (Louis) was incredibly annoying. I heard that role is Tony Kuchner's alter ego. Louis redeems himself at the end but I found him to be a whiny, cowardly man who had difficulty counting his blessings. I loved it when after Louis' typically long diatribes, Belize (Jeffrey Wright) verbally put him down with a just a few words.

In both plays, many of the actors played multiple roles. It seems more of a gimmick on the small screen, though I think Streep and Wright fared best.

The always dependable Thomas Newman has fashioned a haunting musical score. It was minimalistic and very memorable. The theme has been on my mind ever since I first heard the theme when the miniseries won various awards at the Golden Globes. (Update: The miniseries received 21 Emmy nominations and won a record (for miniseries) 11 Emmys. For some mysterious reason, Newman's brilliant score was overlooked.)

I don't see this play adapted for the big screen without chopping a lot of things out. Congratulations to Mike Nichols and the cast and crew for taking a chance adapting "Angels in America" to television.

It seems to me that to be able to experience the full depth of this production, you need to meet a few requirements. First, you need to know that this is a PLAY. Like in any play, texts are delivered that you will not easily hear in everyday life (nobody makes up 'Antebellum Insufficiently Developed Sexorgans' as an alternative interpretation of AIDS during a split second in mid-conversation). Shakespeare isn't realistic in that way, Oscar Wilde isn't, Ibsen isn't, and nor is Tony Kushner. All of them are however extremely realistic in that they highlight essential aspects of the human condition in ways no other medium can achieve. Second, you need an ability to look beyond the surface. Reading reviews of AinA I'm stunned at how simplistically literal some people take it (maybe that explains why you've got Bush for president over there?). This play isn't about gays, it isn't about AIDS, it isn't about Jews and it isn't about Mormons. Its theme is the necessity for people to change, the scariness of change, while most of us would prefer to just let things stay as they are. That's what Louis Ironson wants and makes him run away from his sick lover (consider that: the superficially leftist intellectual is in fact a thorough conservative, more so than the apparently conservative Joe Pitt). That's what the angels want: unchangeable status quo; all the human history making tempted their god to leave heaven, and they want him back. This is the crux of AinA's undeniable political agenda: it sets out to show how conservatism of necessity thwarts and corrupts human nature. Oh yes, that's a third requirement: you really shouldn't belong to that curious group of people who consider the bible a god-given record of factual happenings rather than a piece of ancient mythology: you are likely to be shocked. Kushner's fantasies on biblical themes are very original indeed, and fit into a long tradition of reinterpreting ancient mythology in contemporary contexts. The church could learn a thing or two from him.

Personally, I was very deeply moved by the experience of watching this (as I was by the play nearly ten years ago). I'm sure that, unlike some people seem to think, you don't need to be like the gay men portrayed in AinA to be able to stand it, let alone like it (a ridiculous notion anyway: as a gay man I constantly watch movies about heterosexuals, and am often touched by them). I'm a Dutchman, I know New York only from a few brief visits, and though I'm gay my lifestyle has very little in common with that of the men in AinA; none of that prevented me from being deeply engrossed in this story. Its themes, as said, are universal (if you doubt that this play is essentially about YOU, the closing scene ought to convince you otherwise; if that scene makes you cringe, as I saw somebody complain, you've not really been watching). Its texts are wonderfully written, unafraid of pathos, farce and intellectualism alike, and fiercely direct in their expression. The acting of the whole cast is formidable. Pacino may be redoing previous roles (Devil's Advocate sprang to mind), but boy, does this Roy Cohn have clout, and in the end, how peculiarly difficult it is to really hate him… Patrick Wilson is the perfect pretty boy with a dark secret, and knows how to bring his torment across. Marie-Louise Parker at times has you wondering if she's really been taking pills (and I mean that as a compliment). There simply can't be another Louis than Ben Shenkman (that role was seriously miscast in the Dutch theater production I saw in '95), and Justin Kirk plays his taxing role with utter conviction. Jeffrey Wright goes all out on his ex-drag-queen-with-an-attitude character, and yet succeeds to remain believable as a person. Streep and Thompson are no less great, but I really feel the laurels in the end belong with Parker, Shenkman, Kirk and Wilson. To top it all off, the imagery is beautiful and full of fantasy, without going overboard on bloodless digital effects (it is still a play, remember). The atmosphere is often subtly and hauntingly unreal. And Thomas Newman's score – well, like any truly good music, words cannot do it justice.

I saw a pre-screening of this and was trying to keep low expectations, due to all the surrounding hype. But it certainly lived up to all the acclaim, the expectations from such high-caliber actors, and the myriad of awards (Tony's, Pulitzer, etc.) that the play received.

HBO has once again backed/produced a breakthrough piece of entertainment, on the same level (and maybe above) The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Wit, et. al. But it would be nice for the public to able to see this on the big screen, as it has such grandeur at times.

I won't go into too much detail of the plot as it's still being aired, but do yourself a favor and check it out. And contrary to some reviews, it is still relevant. Not because things are still the same now as they were in 1985 in regards to politics and AIDS and homophobia (although in some ways they are), but because humans still still struggle with relationships, pain, disease, death, religion and hope. It would be like saying "Schindler's List" isn't relevant today because the Holocaust is over and Hitler is dead.

Take the time to view this one of the several times HBO runs it. Give yourself time to watch it distraction-free and enjoy!