HBO's "The Normal Heart": Your Thoughts — Page 8

That "article" is horrible. Even on a basic factual level--how does she know that not one of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic is "queer?" And after complaining about the fact that the film got ridiculous levels of "universal" acclaim on those sites (and there are, if you look at said sites, a couple--albeit not many--disagreeing opinions,) she then writes "But we’re not here to add yet another failing grade to the film's representational report card." Which makes no sense--I thought ALL of the reviews were nothing but praise? I also don't remember the orgy near the start showing the revelers "literally covered in mud" whatsoever, or Ned recoiling from them...

I sorta skimmed the article from that point on. The problem is, that she doesn't seem to be willing to accept that this is (mostly) one person's account and story. The same way people some objected to, to pick just one example, Looking (in a much less serious way) because somehow they saw it as saying that *this* is how gay men are meant to be, except of course this is based in reality and semi-autobiographical so should be all the more considered that way and not as something that is meant to be about showing as diverse a group and group of reactions as possible. Sure, maybe I think she has some points I agree with about Kramer's focus on the actual gay sex angle too much, but anyone who knows anything about him knows that's exactly how he saw and experienced it.

"To all the folks at HBO, I say this: if your goal was to make straight people comfortable in their bigotry, to lay virtually the entire burden of blame for HIV/AIDS on the shoulders of gay men, and to systematically exclude the epidemic’s most vulnerable victims, you couldn’t possibly have done a better job.

Congratulations."

Well, I don't have any suspicion that that was the goal of anyone, including Kramer, while making the movie, so I guess HBO is safe. Phew.

Updated On: 5/30/14 at 04:23 PM

"I think with the dance scene, Julia Roberts character really wanted to experience DANCING with a Man."

Sorry to repeat myself, but the scene is NOT about dancing. Dancing is not an issue in the film and nobody is saying anyone has to stop dancing.

The scene is about the deeply human need to touch and be touched by others. (Something actually true of all primates.) Emma has never called for gay men to stop dancing, so a "dance interlude" per se would be irrelevant.

But losing herself in the embrace of another human being (and her deep need to do so) is a side of Emma we have never seen--and a visible rebuttal to some of what she has been saying to that point in the film.

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One might see a continuation of this issue in Ned's comment later that he doesn't take all the recommended precautions when caring for Felix. Partly, of course, wearing gloves and the like are inconvenient, but doing so also erects a barrier between you and the loved one. (This I know from personal experience.)

This is the article Emcee was referring to, where she uses modern day infection rates to prove that women are being purposefully excluded by Hollywood and white men in The Normal Heart.

I'm a woman. I'm pretty sensitive to the actual exclusion (willful or ignorant) of female characters in movies, TV, theatre and literature. That said, AIDS in 1981 is not our story. Forcing tokenism and minority ratios for the sake of modern day PC inclusion into a real life story is more offensive to me than 2 female characters who are never in a scene together.
The Normal Heart and the Erasing of Women

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Just bought and watched "We Were Here". Even in this documentary it says HIV wasn't considered transferable through Lesbian sex.
Oh i understand the anger of those hetrosexual women who found themselves infected by their lovers who were on the "Down Low".
Have too many "heterosexual" Evangelical Christian friends who are struggling with this.

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JULIA ROBERTS IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!...as is the whole cast...and as someone who lived in NYC from 1982-86 and escorted during those horrible first few years of the plague, I thought the movie gave those who were not so up close and personal with those times a chance to get a feeling for what life was like for those of us who were there...WELL DONE!

Updated On: 5/31/14 at 09:13 PM

Enjoyed it, to the extent that a film like this can be "enjoyed." I should have known that the airplane story was going to be played out rather than just told, but I think it had more power on the stage. Also disappointed that Emma's monologue got cut down, but all that was as inevitable as the role of Tommy being expanded.

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In celebration of the dead and the living--and those who have just watched the movie--here is some footage from the Labor Day 1991 protest at the Summer White House of President George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine.

If you look, you can catch a glimpse of Finding Namo, PalJoey and Reginald Tresilian (although Reggie and I didn't know Namo at the time).

Visible more prominently are ACT UP luminaries like Peter Staley, Spencer Cox, Mark Harrington, Ann Northrup, Michelangelo Signorile, Garance Franke-Ruta. I don't believe Larry Kramer was there, but I think Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham was there (seven years before his Pulitzer for The Hours).

We rallied in the town, chanting "History will recall / Reagan and Bush / Did NOTHING AT ALL!" As you can see from some of the placards, there were already 114,000 people dead.

There were busloads of protesters from Maine and Massachusetts, New York, Philadelphia and DC, as well as from Montreal and Toronto. When the police would let us get no closer to the Bush Compound, we all dropped down to the road and did a die-in on the spot.




(On a happy note, two friends of mine met and fell in love on the bus up to Kennebunkport, and they are still together, twenty-three years later.)



ACT UP Kennebunkport 1991

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It's been a whole week and I guess I'm still too raw/numb to engage in discussion about the end result. I can state unequivocally that I am glad the film got made. The most powerful scene to me was the character crying about missing his dog. Regardless of the medium, it's the small details and moments which always have the greatest impact on me.

The most powerful scene to me was the character crying about missing his dog.

That actor was Stephen Spinella, from the original cast of Angels in America.

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Irrelevant Quibbles.

That should be the title of someone's memoir.

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I hope it's not inappropriate to think of the plague years in the gay male community akin in some way to the Holocaust in the Jewish community. Out of the horrors of the 3rd Riech was born the State of Israel. Perhaps history will look back and conclude that the horrors of the plague years played a key role in opening up rights to gay Americans in the military and on the marriage front that we would otherwise never have seen in our lifetimes.

No, they are not equal catastrophes. And clearly the horrors of AIDS continue in the minority communities in America and throughout the third world without an end in sight. But perhaps in a tangible way our victories in America in the last decade can be traced to those heroes who gave so much on the front lines of AIDS 30 years ago.

FindingNamo...(blushing)..in my stage voice...:)

I think AIDS and the Holocaust are two things it serves no benefit to look at comparatively. Or held up against any other tragedy. And as the late writer Paul Reed said at the time, There are no silver linings."

I'd also like to point out that there was no meeting, no anything, to decide that Gays in the Military was a priority issue, let alone the top priority issue when the odious HRC and Robin Tyler decided that was to be the primary focus of the '92 March on Washington. They just knew their stupid dog tags would sell like hit cakes.

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Updated On: 6/1/14 at 06:04 PM