5/5 A profound human dimension amid the politics and pain
  by Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America)
A jaw-dropping film adaptation of Tony Kushner's epic, 5-hour play, which was a defining artistic statement documenting the political and social upheaval that AIDS-HIV disease brought to America's gay community and to the wider America around it. Mixing agitprop and camp with magical realism and utter, heart-rending, pathos, Kushner and director Mike Nichols bring the story to the screen in a big, big way, with all-around amazing performances by a perfectly cast ensemble. Al Pacino gets to chew up yards of scenery in his portrayal of the sleazy, venal, far-rightwing attorney Roy Cohn (who acted as Joe McCarthy's point man in the infamous 1950s prosecution of "atom spies" Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) and for once, all of Pacino's high-decibel yelling pays off with some real dramatic ooompf.

There are a lot of things that you could comment on in this play -- the exploration of Jewish-American assimilation, the powerful reaffirmation of a supposedly marginalized leftist perspective, etc. -- but the most profound insight Kushner has to offer is about who the real redeeming angels will have to be in our nation's coming cultural reconciliation. The humanity that he is able to impart into the character of the middle-American Mormon, Mother Pitt (played faultlessly by Meryl Streep), is a marvel of modern political drama: and it rings undeniably true. Pushing past our narrowly defined social and political "roles," and into our shared humanity, is the only road open to folks who want to see America's moral and ethical core liberated from the ideological intrusions of the religious far-right, and the resulting frustrated anger of the disenfranchised middle-liberal-left. In a strictly us-vs-them world view, Mother Pitt would be derided by those on the we're-here-we're-queer Left... but as many people have learned, particularly amid the devastating upheavals of the HIV crisis, our real emotional lives are (ideally) not ruled by dogma. Mother Pitt isn't just a caring parent, she's also a kind, pragmatic person, and for her, the most pragmatic choice when confronted with an epidemic, is to simply offer sympathy and solace. What could be more natural? Let's hope her example prevails.

5/5 The CITIZEN KANE of the Modern Era
  by Gay Ithacan (ITHACA, NY USA)
My expectations were high when I learned that HBO was going to spend over $60 million on an adaptation of Tony Kushner's extraordinary 6-hour epic play, but I could nt have imagined that the resulting film would move to the top of my list of best films ever made in the United States - but that is precisely what Angels in America has done.

Streep and Pacino deliver the finest performances of their careers here (Streep in 4 roles!). Emma Thompson is radiant. And the performances of Jeffrey Wright, Mary-Louise Parker, Justin Kirk and Ben Shenkman positively shine.

And the WRITING and DIRECTION! As close to Shakespearean as any American work I have ever read. And scenes that captivate in their composition and lighting, in their structure and their content. And a magical blending of profundity, humor, pathos, tragedy, and ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit over desperation and resignation. A musical score to match the high levels of word and vision.

In short, this film is nothing short of miraculous. All who worked on this masterpiece should be proud of their achievement. Angels in America stands as testimony to what the human mind can accomplish at its finest and most creative.

5/5 A must see for everyone
  by Bryan W Schuman (Federal Way, WA United States)
Many people get stuck on the fact that Angels In America contains many gay themes, and it's sad. The themes in this film run so far beyond gays and into every vein of American society. I challenge everyone to view this film or see the play even if you are vehemently anti-gay. I guarantee it will open your eyes to a picture much much bigger than you can ever imagine. I don't believe this movie at any time condemns anyone for their beliefs, it simply asks us to evaluate our beliefs, and to question the status quo.

I was a lighting designer for a production of this (both parts!) while I was in college, and it opened my eyes then. To see a movie made of it is simply wonderful. I think Kushner did a wonderful job translating it for the screen. The director I worked under always said this play was really a film, and he was absolutely right.

I refuse to call this a movie because to me a movie is just another thing to watch. This is truly a film. It is film at it's finest, coming together with theatre to truly touch our hearts. Please, see this film. You will walk away asking yourself more questions than you ever thought possible.

5/5 This is a masterpiece (...and not an X-rated movie)
  by Steven Edelijn (Belgium)
The shocking intolerance on display below, in some of the negative reviews of this production, is one of the main subjects of this series, and only helps to show how direly we need productions like this one. It ought to be broadcast on prime time national TV. Much of Angels is about how 'keeping up appearances' can destroy people's lives; its core subject is the fundamentally inhuman nature of conservatism. The Angels are "cosmic reactionaries", as one character has it; one of them (Emma Thompson) descends on the main protagonist, Prior Walter (Justin Kirk), to tell him that people have to stop moving. Movement shakes up Heaven, which relies on stasis, eternal sameness. Walter is promoted to a "prophet" of this message, a mission he grapples with but ultimately refuses. This central story interweaves with his conflicted relationship with Louis (Ben Shenkman), his politically engaged liberal boyfriend who runs out on him because he can't deal with the ravages of Prior's illness, AIDS. Louis in turn upsets the marriage of valium-addicted Harper (Marie Louise Parker) and closeted homosexual attorney Joe (Patrick Wilson). Joe breaks away from his stifling routines, much to the dismay of his Mormon mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), who comes over from Salt Lake City to intervene, and ends up finding typical (or even "stereotypical") homosexuals not quite as bad as she thought. Harper meanwhile escapes into her own Antarctic dream world. Another person not pleased is Joe's employer, none other than Roy Cohn (Al Pacino), a viciously homophobic homosexual, who tells his doctor that he hasn't got AIDS, but liver cancer. This of course doesn't save him from a lonely AIDS-death, haunted by the specter of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), whom he put on the electric chair in the fifties through corrupt manipulation of the justice system. All these manifold plots are connected by the character of Belize (Jeffrey Wright), an "ex ex drag queen" who is Cohn's nurse, Prior's ex lover and Louis's friend, and clearly the morally superior force in the play.
Angels is incredibly rich and complex; the writing is terrific. The brilliant surface of Angels, that abounds in wit, tragedy, humanity, political debate, campiness, even occasional sentimentality, conceals a multi-layered message of universal appeal. The acting in this production fully realizes the text in all its dimensions. (Pacino's brilliant performance attains an extra edge due to his uncanny physical resemblance to Cohn - just take a look at Mapplethorpe's terrifically horrific portrait of that man, and than watch Pacino: it's chilling.)

The blatant factual falsehoods contained in some of the negative reviews demand contradiction. Some people would have you believe this is an X-rated film, but the references to "explicit sex scenes" in several reviews are utterly exaggerated. There are exactly two scenes in the whole series that, with a considerable stretch of the imagination, could be called explicit. Neither of them involve nudity, both are of tragic rather than erotic portent, and one (the much maligned Central Park encounter) is mainly ludicrously absurd and comical. The supposedly "explicit" sexual activity in these scenes in total accounts for less than a minute of the whole six hours of the series.
Several actors play double or triple roles, not to show off their versatility or to let the make-up department have a ball or whatever, but simply because the original play dictates it that way (I will not go into the symbolic depths hiding behind this device). Many viewers of this series seem completely unaware that this is a faithful televization of a tremendously successful two-part stage play. That people hungry for superficial entertainment run into their video rental store and take home anything with an appealing box cover without having a clue what it is, ending up shocked or disappointed, seems to me to be their own fault, not that of the film at hand.

It is very simple: if your are of conservative or religious bent, or a homophobic, you will quite probably hate AinA. So don't watch it - problem solved. But you will deprive yourself of simply the greatest thing ever made for American television.



5/5 Magnificent
  by Justine Cardello (Nice, France)
I just watched this on DVD, and all I can say is "Bravo." Amazing that something this superb actually appeared on TV first. The acting was incredible and the story imaginiative and compelling. I am a straight white woman (jsut for the record, as I noticed some reviewers think that only gay men will be interested in this)and having worked in healthcare during the 80s, this is right on target. And for those who think this is uncalled for Republican bashing, well, in 1985, 25,000 people had already died of AIDS and the Reagan administration was trying to pretend that it didn't exist. In fact, it was over five years after the first published reports of AIDS appeared, that Reagan actually made a public statement about it. By the time the govt really acted, AIDS had spread into far and wide, way beyond the gay community. But because in the early days, it was restricted to gay men and IV drug users, the conservatives Republicans in power looked at AIDS as a "moral" issue. So now, is there any reason to wonder why there was so much Republican bashing in this movie? You have to look at things in their historical context.

This is one of the best productions I have ever seen. When I think of all the people that died, because of our government's inaction, it does make me ill. You can catch glimpses of that in this movie, as to how AZT, the only AIDS drug available at the time, could only be gotten by the privileged few.