God Said, 'Ha!'

This is a beautiful, honest and funny show. It breaks new ground in the way that artists treat the major events of life. I understand that the Greeks wore masks because they felt that the human face was incapable of expressing the tragedies and dramas that we all must face. Dylan Thomas wrote "Do not go gentle into that good night,\Old age should burn and rave at close of day; \Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Julia has dared to face tragedy and drama without a mask. She is a humorist and that is the face she shows death. You won't find anything like it anyplace else in any of the arts. She brings a new honesty to the arts and I hope others follow her lead. And she IS funny

I never heard of this actress before happening to see the show listed on the guide. Sounded interesting so I popped in for a look; what an eye and earful I got. I would have to dig down deep to find an amusing story to bring out of something as awful as the things this family had to go through. But then the entire tale wasn't funny: at times it was very painful to listen to. I suppose Sweeney is the type to find silver in a cloud rather than moan continually over the unfairness of her existence. Commendable, I say. I appreciated the way the stage was set up and the methods employed in it's use. Sweeney would walk from area to area using different lighting procedures and layouts, many of which went along with the narrative. Sometimes, with the curtains just behind her, she even appeared to be on the verge of going backstage. Often Sweeney would be looking away from the camera and then turn slowly to face it. That and other uses of the camera and expression added greatly to the production. Bittersweet, effective, excellently done.

This is a very cathartic film allowing someone who lost a loved one (her brother, Mike, who passed away from brain cancer), as well as her own Uterine Cancer that occurred as her brother was dying. She filmed four hours of film, and just let out all of her feelings with real heart and humor, and it was edited down to this loving tribute to her brother. I am not a Julia Sweeney fan, but when I first saw this film when it first came out it really meant a lot to me and it also helped me with losses in my life. This is a film in the same vein as Paul Linke's (Officer Arthur Grossman, from the TV Series "CHiPS"), tribute to his late wife, Francesca Draper, in his similar film "Time Flies When You're Alive" that appeared on HBO. Both films are very warm and loving reflections on loss of a dear loved one, both reflect the pain, the loss, and tasteful humor in dealing with such pain and loss. Both of these films I have recommended for years for those who are dealing with the dying or loss of a loved one. Even as a Chaplain, it is hard to deal with such loss myself... and both of these films have helped me personally.

This is the filmed version of Julia Sweeney's intimate one-woman stage play about her family and how they coped when cancer struck two members within a year. It takes a humorous and very brave look at a very serious situation. "God said Ha!" is an intelligent, entertaining and involving film. The title is taken from a Get Well card a friend sent Sweeney.

. One warning. If "Porky's" is your idea of sophisticated humour, this is not the film for you. A modicum of intelligence and sensitivity is required.

. Executive producer Quentin Tarantino, makes a brief cameo appearance at the end.

When my father died in 1995, I thought I'd never laugh again. This movie is one that I'll always remember as my grief turned into laughter. Grief has it's own way of sneaking up on us, making the world seem surreal when reality is too hard to deal with. When a tragic illness, terminal diagnosis, or chronic injury enter a person's life, things just aren't what they used to be.

That's pretty much what this film is about. How things just aren't as they used to be, and interwoven, complex, and often piquant trips down memory lane.

This film gives a wonderfully extraordinary, titillatingly sarcastic look at medicine, a brother-sister relationship, and the way an independent, single woman finds herself back in her immediate family fold. I say 'hurrah' for the making of this film, and 'thank God' for "God Said, 'Ha!'"