Angels in America... — Page 3

my only comments on this series is...the acting is incredible. I wonder how they all prepared for these strong roles. It's amazing to see Patrick Wilson on a whole new level.

wow, we do have something in common hehe... i love meryl streep so much. She is brilliant and can do anything with whatever she is given.

I found Part 2 to resemble an afternoon on Christmas Day. The anticipation and excitement toned down after the surprise is revealed. Some of it, I found distasteful. Other parts, I found very moving. I can see why the reviewers liked "Millenium Approaches" over it. The Epilogue was very good except I would have liked to see what happened to Joe and Harper. The whole idea of Heaven, "stop moving", and sexual Messenger was very disturbing. I find humor in giving Heaven, God, and the Messenger very human qualities but I also find it to be "different". I don't want to say tacky because it's only a new idea I've never come across. We're brought up to believe God loves us and wants what's best for us, but what if he really abandoned us? I've come out of AIA with the message to simply live and embrace the pain and suffering.

I don't understand the point in having Hannah and the Angel kiss. Could someone please explain? And alongside that, why do the Angel and Prior have sex again?

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Uh-HUH.

ANYWAY, I thought Perestroika was an even stronger film than Millennium.

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Concerning Prior, the message was not "I want to live", but "I can live". Remember, it was the dawn of AIDS and knowledge of the disease was in short supply. Prior never tried to kill himself or even wished to die. He simply thought there was no other choice because, at the time, death was the only option.

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I too loved Mantello and Futterman. Having said that, I think Shenkman nailed the "have you no decency?" speech. Nailed it.

Matt, Angels takes place five years into the epidemic. There was copious knowledge of the disease in the gay community.

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I also enjoyed part II even more than part I. The one scence I keep thinking about today is the scene between Parker and Joe on the Brooklyn rooftop. The sight of the Twin Towers in the distance was the most effective use of special effects in the movie. Such an ominous and haunting scene...

Overall, I found the production to be admirable. I was saddened about some of the cuts, like the scene in the diarama, but found much of the rest of the production to be beautifully played and produced.

It was interesting be able to understand what the angel was saying. On Broadway Ellen McLaughlin was, at the performances I saw, completely unintelligible. I'm not sure I quite understand all of the business with the angels, and the stuff about God's gone away was interesting but left me rather cold. I was much more taken with the earthbound scenes.

I'm still reeling from the comment about how It's A Wonderful Life does it all in less than half the time. Easily the silliest comment I've yet read about the show.

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i wonder what the ratings will be like...

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orion59 - Yes. It is being broken into 3 1-hour chapters

Namo - 5 years into the epidemic AIDS was still synonymous with death. Prior had an abundance of knowledge because he was stricken with the disease himself and did his homework, but the knowledge he had of the disease and of AZT was not common. Researchers will still trying to find a way just to slow it down and as shown in the film, only the elite were able to acquire AZT at all.

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If you have digital cable and you're an HBO subscriber, get this. You can watch either part whenever you want by using the On Demand feature. And there is no extra charge. I didn't even know I had this until I accidentally turned off my vcr while recording the last full broadcast of Millennium and botched everything up. It's a miracle, and for once, I understand why I pay so much for digital cable.

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MisterMatt, if Prior's line before the council is a realization that he no longer wants to die because he has "more options" (medicinally?), than this so-called VIP (Very Important Play) is no better than a problem drama worthy of the HALLMARK network. If the wrestling-with-the-angel scenes and the prophecy business are to have a point at all and a greater resonance, it would necessitate Prior, back from his hero's journey, relaying the universal message that suffering is man's inevitable burden and that we must joyfully embrace the sorrows of the world (like the first tenet of Buddhism and that of most mythologies and world religions, BillFinn), perfectly captured in the profound It's-A-Wonderful-Life affirmation of life: "I want to live (despite the pain of it all)." And since the council scene is the structural, if unconvincing, emotional climax of the play and our hero's struggles, exactly WHAT is more profound that THAT sentiment, EricJ? This I would buy because this is what would make AIA universal and meaningful. But, unfortunately, the angel-wrestling scenes (which potentially should have gone a long way in dramatizing this theme) are nothing but thoroughly confused, confusing, and poorly-written, inscrutable gobbledygook. If these scenes are projections of Prior's personal struggle and (arguably) fantasies of his fevered brain, than why drag Hannah into it in the final encounter (as you rightly questioned, BillFinn) except to get in some cheap, stupid, and throughly unnecessary girl-on-girl action? It didn't work on stage or the film, makes little sense and totally vitiates whatever point Kushner is trying to make.
I've now seen the play twice, read it once and seen the movie. Nothing has dissuaded me from my original opinion that it is essentially an ambitious, but ultimately unsatifying play that does not persuade, does not fulfill its premise and settles for a poorly dramatized resolution to it conflict. It was lionized for its liberal and simplistic cheap shots (I mean, Roy Cohn and Ronald Reagan, for Christ's sake!) and its politically correct, gay-friendly agenda. None of the characters can compare to fully-realized creations such as Blanche DuBois and Willy Loman and the play is already dated in its sexual politics. As I wrote elsewhere, queer politics have been replaced by the far more urgent and global ideologies of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.
Finally, to comment on an earlier poster who wrote that "everyone" (apparently not subscribers to HBO) is talking about AIA, remember this---people talked about the Emperor's New Clothes as well.
'Nuff said.

Updated On: 12/19/03 at 02:53 AM

MusicMan,

I have gone on the record with my disappointment with the film version of Perestroika...namely because of cuts in the text of the play.

One cut is the monologue Prior has in heaven. It states EXACTLY what you're talking about...in no uncertain terms. I used to have this piece of writing memorized...alas no longer. After speaking about the habit of living, he recognizes that 'we live past hope...it's so much not enough, but bless me anyway.'

This is not Bedford Falls and this is not Susan Hayward being sent to the gas chamber.

It speaks clearly to what you're saying. I'm not sure what you're missing.

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