Angels In America (DVD)

...a feature length film called Angels in America was winning quite a few awards. And with a cast including Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Mary Louise Parker it sounded pretty impressive. Usually, us Brits miss out on such opportunities to see such good dramas, and they’re only shown in the United States. Luckily though, those wonderful people at Channel 4 bought the massively successful and anticipated Angels In America from HBO (where ...
...than special!

Angels In America, before it’s major success on screen, was a very famous American play written by Tony Kushner. It received nothing but fantastic reviews, and HBO having such good eyes for brilliance bought the idea, and got Tony Kushner to write the screenplay for them. The film was being talked about for months before being premiered late December 2003, on HBO. Every single magazine and newspaper begged people ... more

If you watched the 2004 Golden Globes you might have noticed that a feature length film called Angels in America was winning quite a few awards. And with a cast including Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Mary Louise Parker it sounded pretty impressive. Usually, us Brits miss out on such opportunities to see such good dramas, and they’re only shown in the United States. Luckily though, those wonderful people at Channel 4 bought the massively successful and anticipated Angels In America from HBO (where Sex and the City and Six Feet Under originated) and decided to give us a real treat by showing the 7-hour film in two parts in one weekend (the first on Saturday, the next on Sunday). So, I was keen to see why the Americans had raved about it, and what was so special about it. But, after seeing it, to define what was so special is difficult. But I’ll tell you one thing, it was better than special!

Angels In America, before it’s major success on screen, was a very famous American play written by Tony Kushner. It received nothing but fantastic reviews, and HBO having such good eyes for brilliance bought the idea, and got Tony Kushner to write the screenplay for them. The film was being talked about for months before being premiered late December 2003, on HBO. Every single magazine and newspaper begged people to watch it, as it was so good. All the reviews had nothing but good to say about the film. Millions of people tuned in to watch it, after reading for weeks how fantastic it was, and eagerly anticipated the next part (it has two parts, each containing three chapters, focusing on different issues). It was something that would be remembered for years to come, and people even tuned in a second time to see it, filling another 7 hours of their lives with the wonderful drama. But, it reached the U.K. rather abruptly. There were barely any mentioning in the newspapers or magazines about it, and the only reason people watched it is because they’d heard good things about it from across the pond. So, if you did miss it, or even if you didn’t, follow me now on a journey through the masterpiece…

♦ Synopsis ♦

Angels In America is the story set in New York in the mid-eighties. It follows several people’s lives, and they all have different political, racial, social, sexual and religious views. All are different characters, all have different opinions. That’s why watching Angels In America is so intriguing – it’s got so much clashing between different characters that you thrive on the next debate the character have; you want to see their difference of opinion come to the surface again and again. To tag Angels In America with one main issue is a crime. It’s about Aids. Yes. But it’s about so much more too. It centres on homosexuality, Mormons, and many historical characters. Two of the characters are actually real people, and Tony Kushner captures their spirit fantastically. So, who would want to watch it? Everyone. And everyone should.

♦ The Characters ♦

[We aren’t introduced to these characters in this specific order; they are all introduced in the beginning. I’ve just happened to choose this order to analyse them.]

The two main characters in the film are Louis (Ben Shenkman) and Prior Walter (Justin Kirk). They are lovers who have been together for four years, and their relationship is put to the test when Prior finds out he has Aids, and is about to die. When Angels In America is mentioned, and from the reviews I read, very little was said about these two, even though over half of the film centres around them, and all of the other characters wouldn’t be in the film if they weren’t. The story, in reality, revolves around them. We return to them throughout the film, and without them the film wouldn’t work. Prior was a funny and entertaining character and I think that his part made the comical elements of the film work. He had to deal with death, and rather than breaking down, he dealt with it – maybe not in the best of ways, but he did – and it made his character stronger and got the audience interested in him. Louis, on the other hand, was an irritating character, in my opinion. I don’t think Kushner did set out to make us relate to him, though. He wasn’t a character who you’d sympathise with – he was a character you’d be irritated by. But, even though I was irritated by him I think that the loosing of his character from the film wouldn’t make it complete, even if he were less irritable, he was crucial the way he was to do what to did and deal with Aids the way he did. Prior’s best friend – Belize (played by Jeffrey Wright) - used to be in love with Prior and is one of the only people that stick by him after his disease worsens. He’s a wonderful character and has the best of views, and the parts that he’s in are always entertaining.

Secondly is Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn (played by Al Pacino), to me, was the most intriguing character out of them all. Being a historical character, Tony Kushner must have had trouble writing his part. Roy Cohn was one of the biggest lawyers in America during the middle of the last century, and he was famous for being the most arrogant and heartless of lawyers around. He was rumoured to have been homosexual, but never admitted that to himself. He was, somewhat, homophobic, but still had sex with men. He still considered himself a heterosexual, though. Kushner has managed to make us feel that Roy is just like any of the other characters, but it’s even more outstanding considering what happens to him in Angels In America actually happened to him in real life. He’s so significant in Angels In America because he’s one of the two characters that suffer with Aids. He deals with it completely different to how many people he would, insisting to his Doctor that he should tell everyone he has “lung cancer” not Aids. His way of dealing with it is to cover things up. To pretend it isn’t there. But Death won’t wait, and this time he can’t get away from it. There are many times in the film where you think – “I don’t think he’s got as cold a heart as he makes out. There’s good in everyone”, I often think like that when a character is portrayed how Roy Cohn was in Angels In America, and do tend to pity hated characters. But Tony Kushner wrote his part to be hated, and hated only, and certainly not to be pitied. He made him out to be an evil person, and that’s what made his character so interesting and intriguing.

Whilst preparing to die, Roy is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep) who also is a historical character. We get to know very little about Ethel, all we gather from what we’ve been told is that Roy Cohn got her executed, by being in the prosecution of her case, in the 60’s for a crime she was supposed to have/or had committed. Ethel has pleasure in seeing Roy die, and it’s made clear that many people are pleased that he’s dying, and Ethel isn’t alone. Ethel is one of the many characters that appear in the characters minds. We don’t know whether these people really are there (i.e. whether Ethel’s ghost really is haunting Roy whilst he’s dying, or whether Roy is imagining her as he feels guilt and feels he’s being paid back) but there are strong suggestions. Ethel is a character who I couldn’t really grasp onto. I knew why she was there, but I couldn’t see whether she was good or bad. Maybe Kushner wasn’t sure whether she was guilty of her crime or not, and didn’t want to portray her wrongly, either way. For one thing, though, she’s one of the most mysterious characters that keep you thinking afterwards.

Then there’s the two married Mormons Harper (Mary Louise Parker) and Joe (Patrick Wilson) Pitt who to me, were the most challenging characters. They, between them, hold the most dreams. They hate their lives. They don’t want to live it. They don’t want to have it. They dream of being somewhere else. Harper, a pill popper, does nothing but daydream all day. All her dreams include travelling. Going somewhere. Travelling places. Which is an odd way to dream when you’re Agra phobic. It’s as if she wants to be elsewhere, but can’t get past those few steps. She doesn’t want to go outside, she wants to go outside of the outside. She wants to go to places that don’t exist. She used the ozone layer as a metaphor in the early stages of the film that echoes her life – it’s a life-threatening, and big hole that can’t be moved. She feels that she’s under ozone layer, and as soon as she gets from there she’ll be all right. But she can’t. She’s trapped. And her daydreaming is her only escape. Her husband, Joe, is a lawyer (an employee of Roy Cohn) who’s forced to lead a life that he doesn’t want to. He’s forced, to keep a show up, to vote for Reagan (Reagan was President at the time the film is set in, and is a big issue in the film) that he doesn’t really want to do. He holds a secret that no one knows, which is he is homosexual. Being a Mormon this is a sin, but what holds him back even more than his religion is his Father. We rarely get to hear of his Father but there are mentioning from his Mother, Hannah Pitt (who’s also played by Meryl Streep), that he wasn’t a very kind man, and Hannah even tells her son that he didn’t love him. Hannah is someone who only appears in the second part, but is very significant. She’s someone with fond beliefs and doesn’t let anyone be “inappropriate”. She is intelligent and knows her stuff. She seems, out of all the characters, the most balanced and level headed. She was the character that really interested me, and she was a big part of the story. Bigger than I thought she would be.

♦ The Issues Raised ♦

As I’ve already mentioned the film doesn’t only contain one main theme, which many people say it does. It contains many. The first is Aids. Roy Cohn and Prior are the two characters that experience the disease. Even though Roy has the most money, and high status, it seems Prior is the one who deals with it better out of the two. He takes it how most people would. As its set in the eighties, in Angels in America, Aids is labelled as a “gay mans disease”. As Roy doesn’t want to admit to having it, it seems it shameful to have it. More so for him as he makes out he’s heterosexual, even though almost everyone knows this isn’t true, and doesn’t want to admit to having the diseases. Aids had to be an issue raised in Angels In America, because it was a big issue in many gay men’s lives in the eighties, especially in New York. Angels In America deals with it well, and shows the true effects of the disease. It has some meaning to it, and it makes you realise how things can be so different for different people.

Another issue raised, that I noticed, was insanity. It’s suggested that Harper is insane, and Prior when he finds out that he’s got Aids. In one touching scene they both daydream and meet each other in their dream. It’s a significant part, because they both share intimate feelings and secrets, and are help to each other at their time of need. It’s still unclear, after watching the whole film, whether this was a coincidence that they came across each other in their dream, whether it was fate, or whether it was a sign of what was about to come in the film. Another part in the film, which could be considered as someone suffering from insanity, is when Prior sees two of his ancestors. Prior is the 33rd Prior Walter and he is visited by two of the 32 Prior Walters before him in his generation. It’s a comical part, if not a bit silly, but it makes Prior consider his options of what he’s going to do. Again, we don’t know whether he made his own mind up and they were a fragment of his imagination or whether they were real so he would make a decision. But what I did notice was that whenever Harper experienced these “dreams” she was anywhere. She could be standing up, sitting down, lying down. Anywhere in the apartment. Whilst Prior was always sleeping, and then waking up afterwards, which makes me thing that Kushner is trying to tell us something about their states of mind, and how Harper isn’t stable, whereas Prior is. But does either of them really experience these things or are they dreams? I think you decide that out yourself after seeing the film!

Another main issue in the film was politics. Roy Cohn is a lawyer, as is Joe, and Belize and Louis barely ever meet up without arguing about something political going on in the world that certain year. Reagan was often mentioned, and it’s made apparent that Kushner wasn’t fond of him as a President. I didn’t really grasp any of the political subjects raised, but they were explained well and kept me intrigued (so intrigued I researched it on the internet afterwards) and kept the story going and also set its scene of what era it was. The two issues that were very alike were the political and racial ones. There was one character in the film that was black – Belize – and two characters weren’t fond of him because of his race – Roy and Louis. It seemed maybe Roy hated him because he was openly gay, how he wanted to be, rather than because of the colour of his skin, but he still raised the issues often and mocked him for the colour of his skin. Louis, on the other hand never raised the issue, but Belize was almost certain that he was racist. It intrigued me the way Kushner never confirmed that two of the characters were racist (maybe deep down they weren’t), but it makes me think that he’s echoing how racists really are- they don’t admit to themselves, more often than not, they are racist, they just have the anger and hatred stuck inside them. It was a very interesting topic that was raised in the film.

Also, religion was another issue raised very often. Harper, Joe and Hannah were all Mormons, and this was the religion mostly focused upon. We got to see the religious views of Mormons often throughout the film, and learnt a few historical facts from their views. Other than this, another religious topic raised was when Prior said he was visited by an Angel (The Messenger) who gave Prior a book, and he was made a “Profit”. This again questions his sanity, but it still very religious. Prior, a very un-religious man was picked to be the Profit for this religion, and it makes you ask – why? There are many questionable unanswered facts in religious history and this is another one to add to the list. I think your decision of whether the Angel did come to Prior in his dreams or reality is your view on religion. That’s what’s wonderful about Angels in America – you’ll get to know your views on things without even knowing you though that in the first place. I certainly experienced that whilst watching the film.

And finally, one of the biggest issues raised was homosexuality. There were two kinds – the openly gay and the ones still in the closet. I didn’t find the openly gay men in the film interesting, and I don’t think Kushner intended anything new there, but the two still pretending to themselves they weren’t gay (Roy and Joe) were very interesting. They do share something though, and I think this is why they are so alike in their ways of wanting not be gay – the acceptance, or lack of, from their Fathers. It’s mentioned that both men’s Fathers didn’t love them in the film, and I believe they don’t admit their sexuality to themselves because they want to get the acceptance from their Fathers. They want to be loved and appreciated, and they feel being homosexual they won’t be able to achieve that. It’s as if they’re living their Fathers lives, not their own, and it’s all an act and they aren’t doing what they’re doing for them but for their Father. It’s interesting, because Joe, it seems, is like a junior version of Roy. He is going to live and lead the same life as him, and Roy knows that. Roy is an intelligent person, and he knows Joe is homosexual, and before being admitted to hospital there’s a scene between them that’s very intriguing and insightful. It’s interesting because that didn’t really happen in real everyday life. Even though Roy was a real person, Joe was fictional, and it’s really interesting the way Kushner has formed this character as a replica, in a way, of Roy in his younger years. Joe might have stronger religious views, but he’s very like Roy, and they share that bond. The only difference is that Joe isn’t cold, whereas Roy was.

♦ Acting ♦

Having won four Golden Globes, just for the acting, you can see that acting is one of the best things in Angels In America. It won ALL the awards in the category of films made for TV/mini series’ and Al Pacino and Meryl Streep won Golden Globes for Best Actor/Actress in a leading part, and Jeffrey Wright and Mary Louise Parker collected them for best actor/actresses in a supporting role. Angels In America’s story is special, and the acting is almost as good as the story. It’s no wonder as three of the main characters are Oscar winners, and more than 20 nominations are shared between the three.

The way that Emma Thompson, Meryl Streep and Jeffrey Wright all played more than one character was genius. Especially, Emma Thompson. She played the Angel, the Nurse and the homeless Woman. They all seemed to be the same person, yet so different. All helped – the Angel helped Prior when he was ill and didn’t know what was happening. The Nurse also helped Prior get through his illness. And finally the homeless Woman helped Hannah Pitt when she was lost and couldn’t find her way to Brooklyn. Meryl Streep played a Rabbi, Ethel Rosenberg and Hannah. This wasn’t so in the play (all characters were played by different actors) so I’m not quite sure why it was so in the film. It’s another intriguing deep feeling to add to the film and it really makes you wonder. There are so many things in the characters lives in Angels In America that I can imagine it was hard to get into their character’s mind (especially for the actors who played more than one part!) and stay in character. But that’s what all actors achieved. They managed to be able to transform themselves and do it believably. Streep was outstanding throughout the film, as was Al Pacino. None were better than any other, though. All of them were special in their own little way and made Angels In America what it was – stunning.

♦ The Point ♦

Well, what is the point of Angels In America? Why is it so beautifully written, acted and made? Why is it so crucial that you watch it? Well, I wish I did know the answer to those questions, but sadly I don’t. All I know is that Angels In America is one of the best things on television for a long while. The best thing I’ve ever seen that’s for certain. It’s not just drama; it’s so much more. It deserves it’s own genre in a way. It deserves its own place. Kushner has surpassed himself, and shown to everyone that he’s the most wonderful and poignant of writers of this century. Mike Nichols, the director (who’s films include Silkwood) has also given his all to the film. He’s given it that extra thing. Kushner added the icing and Nichols added the cherry!

The only thing that I was disappointed about in Angels In America is the way that we learnt very little about Ethel Rosenberg. I though, as a historical character, we’d get to know a lot about her and her past with Roy Cohn, but we learnt very little, and I had to research a lot to understand why she was executed, and how, and at what time. She was executed because of her husband’s crimes – which she helped – but he wasn’t mentioned once in the film. It was interesting researching it and all, but I really would have preferred it to have been mentioned and added in the film. I felt that we didn’t really get to feel her character as much because of it. It was as if she lacked something, and at the time of watching it I couldn’t put my finger on it, but now I realise she wasn’t complete as a character because her story wasn’t complete. She was an interesting and significant character, yet we learnt so little about her, and I wish Kushner had added more of her past and it would have made Angels In America that bit greater.

But other than that minor fault it was wonderful, and everything else was wonderful to watch. Every character was crucial; if you’d taken one character away another wouldn’t have worked so well, and to me the fact that all the characters shared paths at one stage in the film was what made it so influential. None of them would work with one of them missing. The characters were an added bonus to the acting and the wonderful story.

Angels In America was shown on the 7th and 8th of February (2004) on Channel 4. I don’t think it’s being repeated within the year (as it takes up so much scheduling time), but it does come out on DVD and VHS later this year. If you do get any chance to see it, please abuse that opportunity because there seriously is something there for everyone. 7 hours isn’t too long, if anything it’s too short, and I’ll most certainly watch it again when I get the opportunity.

© Matt Roberts 2004

 

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