Still trying to climb back into EDT after being on Israel
time for two weeks (seven hours difference) and grateful to no longer have to
fear rockets exploding over my head, I sprawled
onto the couch at about 6 PM last night, tuner in hand. Out of curiosity, I found
myself watching the HBO version of The Normal Heart.
I had no idea what awaited me.
A Brilliant Recasting
This is a powerful film that recasts Kramer’s critically
acclaimed play about the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in New York City in a highly
compelling adaptation. I had seen the play when it first was performed here in
Orlando in the late 1980s. This film
version is at least as brilliant as the original play.
HBO is to be commended for this excellent film and its actors
for their wonderful performances. Mark Ruffalo provides a stellar performance as
the irascible, unrelenting gay Jewish activist desperately trying to draw attention
to the looming crisis as does Matt Bomer as his gentle spirited, still closeted
New York Times reporter partner. Julia
Roberts, in a complete departure from previous roles, plays the wheelchair
bound doctor who sounded the alarm over this strange, new disease. It is a
surprising role in which she is truly at her very best.
The HBO production is decidedly an award winning performance.
Whether it will win the awards it deserves, time will tell. Controversial
topics have ways of getting ignored at awards time.
Ask Ang Lee.
They Descended Into Hell…..
For those of us who lived through this terrible time, it will
be difficult to reenter the descending circles of Hell of the early Reagan days
of the 1980s. I watched spellbound, horrified and nearly nauseous as I recalled the desperation I had felt during that time of death and fear. The film
managed to rip open deep wounds in my soul that I thought (hoped? prayed?) had long
ago scarred over even as they may never completely heal.
I spent most of the 1980s in a white hot rage over the
people I knew who were dying. No one cared. Medical facilities and insurance
companies denied them treatment. Our government refused to even acknowledge the
crisis starting with the president himself who remained silent as his supposed dear friend, Rock
Hudson, lay dying of this unspeakable plague halfway across the world in a
hospital in Paris. Our churches demonized the dying from their pulpits and
fearful, hate-filled protesters dehumanized them on the streets.
Amidst the denial, fear and hatred, I lost 53 friends. Kramer’s screenplay brings it all back,
complete with the pain, the rage and the tears.
This film is a tribute to all who suffered through that long, dark
night of fear and loathing and to those brave souls who were galvanized by that
tribulation to fight back for human dignity. It is also a touching, respectful memorial
to those many good souls who were not able to accompany us all the way through the
journey.
May their souls and the souls of all the departed rest in peace.
Finally, it is a recognition of the many family members
touched by this darkness, some of whom were forced screaming out of their own
closets of fear-driven denial by the impending deaths of their own children and
family members. It’s also a calling out of those who were never able - courageous enough? selfless enough? - to find
their way out of their iron-clad bunkers of denial.
An important reminder of human fragility
We are in HBO’s debt for being willing to take a chance on
such a troubling, pointed film. And we are in the debt of Larry Kramer for his
spell-binding account of life and death in an age of AIDS. I commend this film
to all of you. It will not be an easy ride nor will it be mindless
entertainment.
But it is an important reminder of the fragility of our
human existence and our need for each other. If nothing else, it is a way of
paying our respects to the many victims of this disease, both those infected by this tragic illness and
those whose lives their tragedies touched.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The
Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., M.Div., Ph.D.
Member,
Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest,
Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Assoc.
Lecturer: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University
of Central Florida, Orlando
If the unexamined life is
not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or
political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do
not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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