A CLASSIC IN ITS OWN RIGHT : "ANGELS IN AMERICA"

Now, I have mentioned more than once how I approached something with definite negative prejudices and turned out to be very, very wrong indeed. Never more so with this series. I had, quite a while back, watched an episode of this series (for it is the HBO adaptation and not the Pulitzer Winning play we want to talk about here folks!) . Credit where it’s due, the said episode was from the middle of it. Taken completely out of context, with absolutely no backstory, you won’t be surprised to find out that I hated it and never went back to trying it again. Until, a very dear friend pushed the box set into my end, assuring me that I would love it. I distinctly remembered disliking the small bit of it I had watched passionately but smiled politely and put the case into my bag. At home, I thought for a bit, then I took a deep breath and put it on. Here was a valued friend whose opinion I trusted. At the very least I should be able to explain why I didn’t like it – and “I think I watched an episode some years back” wouldn’t quite cut it. So I took a deep breath and took the plunge. Rarely have I been so glad I have taken a risk. This is not only my favorite out of the three films this week, it is one of my favorite series ever and will be, I think, for always and always. Let me try and explain why.
Angels in America is the story of five people living in New York in 1985. Louis and Prior are a gay couple, whose lives are torn asunder when Prior is diagnosed with AIDS and Louis proves less than capable of coping with this development. Joe and Hannah are a Mormon couple with their own problems. Joe is caught between his beliefs and his sexuality – battling daily to “overcome” his homosexual desires, while Hannah is addicted to Valium and unable to cope with day to day life, much less support her husband. However if Joe’s personal life is complicated his career is going strong; he’s chief clerk in the D.A.’s office and works for Roy Cohen (supremely played by Al Pacino) who is homosexual but refuses to accept both this fact and the fact that he has been diagnosed with AIDS – adamantly claiming he has liver cancer. Cohen’s diagnosis comes at a bad time for him as from his death bed he must battle a rather deserving smear campaign based on the fact that he is a rather unpleasant character and not an entirely honest person at that. Their lives come together, dragging along friends and family members with spectacular results that I do not wish to reveal at this point in the review.
The “epilogue” at the end of the series – and I assume the play as well, clearly shows the work’s message. It harks of a moment when the AIDS epidemic was pushing the gay community to speak out clearly, in a time of great human suffering and death what is needed is solidarity. We have no time for petty preconceptions, we must work together to stop the suffering Therefore, Prior tells us (and I’m paraphrasing a bit but this is the gist of it ;) “We will no longer live secret lives and die secret deaths. The world spins forward, you may want it all to go back to the time where we lived and secret and you could pretend we weren’t there – that’s just hard luck. You’re just going to have to cope with it. Not just because we have to, but because we have a right to. “
But don’t get trapped into thinking that the film consists of “in your face” activism. On the contrary, Angels in America shows anyone who had any prejudices that what they baulk from is actually not so different from well… Any love affair any straight person has ever had. Throughout the series you will bear witness to some of the most truly touching and emotional dialogues, the most passionate loves and some of the “hottest” love scenes (and I’m not just talking about the fact that I am a straight woman and I kinda don’t mind extended opportunities to admire the male physique, the energy infused into the scenes is just so electrifying I defy your toes not to curl. At the very least that is. ). On the other hand there is a deeply symbolic narrative as well, through somewhat extravagant symbolism we see the gay community’s battle against the conservative part of society that somehow refuses to accept that the world goes forward and the time has come to embrace what is different. Blind rejection is not right and is no longer an option…
The story is also remarkable in its portrayal of characters. Al Pacino’s character Roy Cohen may be both gay and an AIDS victim but easy to sympathize with he is not. In actual fact he is quite despicable, but we can’t help but stop and ponder his open refusal of his homosexuality, based (as he explains in a rather impressive monologue) on the fact that in this world if you want to be strong, you cannot afford to be known to be gay. Gay is what nobodies are. If you’re somebody, you’re straight. And Roy is somebody. So there. His attitude stinks, but at the same time reflects a sad truth about society where openly gay men and women are at a blatant disadvantage no matter what their personal talents are. Then there is Louis. He is not the knight in shining armor nursing Prior to the end, on the contrary he is revealed to be deeply, seriously lacking. At the same time, he is so utterly human one cannot help but sympathize with him – even though one might want to throttle him at the same time.
And though it is incredibly sad, the end carries notes of optimism. No, the characters don’t all “live happily ever after”, such is not the way of the world. But there are changes, the consequences are as painful as the changes themselves but they are no less necessary for being so – and they are probably better in the long run, although we leave our characters at a worrying moment as far as their futures are concerned. Others change for the better, and one character that has to be mentioned is Mother Pitt , Joe’s conservative mother (played exquisitely by veteran actress Meryl Streep) who is a Mormon through and through but will end up opening up… And accepting. Another quick mention goes to Emma Thompson who executes her role (details of which will have to be searched for in the series!) wonderfully and powerfully.
If you are not a stone, you will be deeply moved by this series. I defy you not to cry at least a couple of moments of it. It is a long, hard look at a realistically portrayed part of life that well, let’s face it… Us straight folk don’t look at as long or as hard as we sometimes should…