The Ryan White Story

This movie is listed as "heartfelt" and I surely didn't feel that. Sure I sympathize with Ryan White and his family but nothing in this film moved me. Also the acting in this was absolutely horrible. I would not suggest this movie. You could read about Ryan White, his story, and his journey in 5-10 minutes on the internet rather than watch the movie.

Because I lived during the era when HIV/AIDS was a HUGE worry, I remember pretty clearly the sad case of Ryan White. The boy contracted AIDS as a result of his treatments for Hemophilia...and folks in his community were so scared of the illness. After all, not a lot was known about the illness at that time. The school board responded by expelling Ryan...and the boy was the center of a media frenzy. It was a sad story...especially when so much of the rhetoric surrounding this was hateful by the folks in his community and the White family was treated abominably. Because of this, I basically spent much of the film in tears...and I think this is going to be the case with most viewers. It's a sad, awful story...no matter how it's told. This film is a made for TV movie that came out a year before Ryan's death.

So is the story well done? Yes. I am not sure how much they changed facts to make the story more cinematic...but it is very effective in presenting the story. Well acted as well...and well worth seeing.

This is the story of the late Ryan White & his family. After contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion, he's refused the chance to return to school (in his hometown of Kokomo, Indiana) after he becomes well from an opportunistic infection. Since it's the early 1980's not much is really known about HIV, so ignorance is rampant in this hick/redneck town & people make their lives miserable. Judith Light is excellent as Jeanne White, Ryan's mom. Fighting along with her son for his right to an education. The expression on her face as she watches the welcome reception he receives, at a new school after they move to a different town, conveys the happiness only a mom could feel for her child.

The Ryan White Story

The only disease children had to worry about contracting in the early-1980s was Cabbage Patch Fever.

Unfortunately, as this biography shows, by the mid-1980s HIV/AIDS appeared.

In one fell swoop, 13-year-old Ryan White (Lukas Haas) contracted the virus through a blood transfusion and was given 30-days to live.

But it was not only the disease that weakened him, but his school banning him from attending, out of fear of infection.

Unwilling to accept the fate the doctor had prescribed and the principal has assigned her son, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) hires a hardnosed lawyer (George C. Scott) to take the school to task.

Based on the true story of one of the first non-homosexuals to get the disease, this heart wrenching made-for-television movie may be schmaltzy, but it helped bring sympathizers to the syndrome.

Mind you, the new poster child for the fight against HIV/AIDS is now Magic Johnson's robot.

Green Light

vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I had to watch The Ryan White Story in health class this week. It has movie of the week written all over it. The movie does not get into any medical or scientific discussion of AIDS and I don't expect it to. Its not a movie I would choose to show in health class, but as any student at Grant High School would know, ANYTHING is better than listening to a certain health teacher (I won't say his name) talk. The Ryan White Story is also not the worst movie Mr. Jacobs showed in his class (oops!).