Angels in America (2003, miniseries) or, Dying in the 80s, of AIDS, at L-E-N-G-T-H

9/17/2013

Angels in America (2003, miniseries) or, Dying in the 80s, of AIDS, at L-E-N-G-T-H

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Emma Thompson is the visiting angel on this dramatic poster for Mike Nichols' Angels in America

Tony Kushner (Munich (2005)) wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in the 1980s on AIDS, politics, religion, sex and homosexuality, which premiered in 1991. Adapting it was attempted first by master filmmaker Robert Altman, who ultimately didn't secure the necessary funding. Kushner tried adapting it into a single film but failed. He then started adapting it to miniseries format, and HBO agreed to finance the effort, directed by German master filmmaker Mike Nichols (Catch-22 (1970)) which was released in two versions: You can either see Angels as two roughly 3 hour movies, or as six episodes of around an hour. This review is based on the latter option.

New York in the 1980s: A young, Jewish gay couple are struck by tragedy, when the one part is diagnosed with AIDS. SPOILER The city's shark-like lawyer and Republican, Roy Cohn, dies equally slow from the disease at the same time. Meanwhile the healthy Jew leaves his sick sweetheart and has sex with Cohn's secretary, who has a wife. Next his Mormon mother enters the story, and later; angels.

Angels in America has a stellar cast that includes Al Pacino (The Godfather (1972)), James Cromwell (Owd Bob (1998)), Jeffrey Wright (Lady in the Water (2006)) and Emma Thompson (Beautiful Creatures (2013)). But the stars that really stand out and distinguish themselves here are Meryl Streep (The Manchurian Candidate (2004)) as the Mormon mother, a conflicted part she plays perfectly; and Patrick Wilson (Fargo (2015, TV-series)), who plays the closeted, married gay secretary coming out with lots of charm and intensity.
After the angels enter the story, the metaphysical elements get out of hand in a rainbow of pomposity and self-importance. The limit for this audience member's engagement in the tale gets crossed somewhere between the ethereal, the political, the racial politics and all the dramatic gays, but many others slurp it all up with a quivering smile.
Pacino is Cohn, the dying big-shot lawyer in denial, and he is almost so sick, feeble and skeletal here that you feel physically ill yourself by just watching him, (which you'll do at length in Angels in America).
The ending is excessively lengthy, so in spite of the series' qualities, it is far from being the gemstone that it is hailed as. Better AIDS-themed works include Philadelphia (1993), How to Survive a Plague (2012, documentary), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Normal Heart (2014, TV movie), BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017) and more.

Related posts:

Mike Nichols: Closer (2004) - Nichols and Marber's intelligent film of love and infidelity

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Biloxi Blues (1988) or, '45 Army Camp Confidential
Catch-22 (1970) - Nichols wages war on war with ensemble cast in absurdist satire

Watch a 4-minute clip from the miniseries here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: None (TV miniseries)
= Uncertain
[Angels in America was first broadcast from 7 December - 14 December (HBO) and runs 352 minutes. Shooting took place for 137 days in New York and in Rome, Italy from March 2002 - January 2003. It was reportedly the most-seen TV movie of 2003, - whether this made it profitable also is regrettably unreported. It won 5/7 Golden Globe nominations, 11/21 Emmy nominations, an AFI award, a National Board of Review award, was nominated for a Grammy and several other honors. Nichols returned with Closer (2004). Streep returned in Freedom: A History of Us (2003, documentary TV-series) and theatrically in The Manchurian Candidate (2004)); Thompson in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004); and Pacino in The Merchant of Venice (2004). Angels in America is certified fresh at 92 % with a 9.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Angels in America?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

9/17/2013