I Don’t Want To Go On The Cart

Angels In America
Longtime Companion

Well, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.
The Dead Collector ~ Monty Python And The Holy Grail

Well, look at that! I just passed another anniversary. June 1st 1990 I was diagnosed HIV+ by the military doctors and told I had all of 5 years at most to live. So I guess I should ask for my money back now or something.

Ah, such fun times those were!

Anyway, ignore that boohoo crap and let’s compare and contrast two of my favorite AIDS movies. Not that I actually am an expert in AIDS movies since there are way too many Gay flicks out there that have this type of subject matter somewhere in the plot line but I am going to keep this to the big names and the mainstream flicks that may have actually hit the Midwest movie houses.

So as someone with fairly intimate knowledge of HIV and it’s effects how do I feel about these movies. Well, AIDS movies in general tend to be lazy as a rule if you ask me. All “Weepies” with “big hair” and “big moments” and fairly often a fake two dimensional feel to them like they are callously calculated to be the DRAMA moment for the male lead who may not even feel comfortable playing a Gay person. Tom Hanks in Philadelphia comes to mind. A painful slog of a movie if there ever was one.

So I will gladly now change that subject and give you two whole different options in AIDS Movies…

The hard ass take no prisoners approach that is Angels In America or the sentimental and often warm and fuzzy Longtime Companion.

Angels In America has aged the best out of the bunch and is still in my opinion the harshest and most “in your face”. It literally yells at you this is AIDS, this is what AIDS did, this is who AIDS killed… if you ever vote Republican again after seeing this and And The Band Played On you have no soul. Anyway, Angels In America is also the best acted and the best filmed and the cruelest AIDS movie ever made. It is bitter and it is meant to be bitter but it is also important enough as a Gay Movie and an AIDS Movie that you must spend the time to understand it not the other way around. This movie does not have a “point of view” so much as it has a kitchen knife and it is very very angry.

Longtime Companion on the other hand sits happily on the other side of the spectrum. It is not as well acted and it has not aged as well as it could but I tend to actually like it better for these flaws. It struggles but it has got “real heart” I guess you could call it. There is a relationship that begins the story and you see it evolve through the movie and since both participants survive I guess you could call this the “more romantic” of the two AIDS movies here.

Well, um actually it is the only “romantic” of the two movies here since Angels shows the breakup of not one but three couples and two of them share one of the participants of the third. Angels is what I consider “real” especially considering the huge emotional upheavals that becoming HIV+ brings with it but let’s face the fact relationship angst due to disease is not very romantic but AIDS never was to begin with.

So I think this comes down to one of those choices of what you the viewer are looking for. So if you want a sentimental warm and fuzzy look at AIDS that brings with it not much thinking but a lot of feeling then go with Longtime Companion.

But… if you want the type of real political and social arguments that should be brought up in an AIDS movie that I can respect and agree with having been myself not only eventually infected with HIV but having lived through all the homophobia with the added insult of certain death and dying in the 80s and 90s then spend the time required to watch Angels In America. Sure it offends everyone but it’s only telling the truth about us in a time and place that people Gay and Straight probably will never want to remember,,, at least accurately.

With my recent viewing on my new TV both movies are very different but still rocking and get an A from me. I hope these all eventually make it to Blu-ray along with Torch Song Trilogy.

Tags: Movie