Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4036 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-13
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Anamorphic, Colour, Dolby, PAL
• Original language: English, Hebrew, Yiddish
• Subtitled in: English, Swedish, Portuguese, Hebrew
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 337 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining US theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theatre-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols, provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power.

The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work.

The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer

Synopsis
In transferring Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the small screen, director Mike Nichols has crafted a profound, ambitious masterpiece. The film follows a sprawling group of characters as they navigate their way through the cutthroat New York City of the 1980s, when AIDS began to rear its ugly head. Getting sicker by the minute, Prior Walter is abandoned by his tormented lover, Louis (Ben Shenkman); deluded lawyer Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is visited by Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he helped to condemn; and the pill-popping Harper (Mary-Louis Parker) is on the verge of losing her sanity when she realises that her husband, Joe (Patrick Wilson), is a closet homosexual.
Like the best works of art, Nichols' production doesn't merely reflect a particular chapter in America's history. It floats deeper, into a world where everyday feelings are elevated to a spiritual realm. Already hailed as a modern classic, ANGELS IN AMERICA is one of the medium's crowning achievements.

Customer Reviews

Angelic Upstarts of Highest Order
Six hours of tv? The first three flew by and we cancelled all engagements in order to view the second. Launched with Al Pacino's queen bitch lawyer Roy Cohn, McCarthy's right hand man exercising his still potent power, for the benefit of the so far repressed, cherub faced Joe. Descending into the pit that was 1980s American indifference to and absolution of any response to the AIDS epidemic coursing through the nation's veins, America slowly comes to terms with homosexuality and its public invisibility. Tony Kushner's play is a masterpiece, dealing with America's coming out and the confusion, fear and loss of a "pestillence" stricken generation. Watch, witness, weep and laugh with this ultimately life affirming, hallucinatory disection of individuality, interpendence, suffering, loss, love, life, faith, guilt and survival. Spectacular peformances - not least by Ms Streep in several roles including an ageing Rabbi - and Jeffrey Wright. Settle in and prepare to be awakened.

Angels in America greatest thing on television. Ever.
1000 words could not nearly suffice to give AinA the praise it deserves; it is a masterpiece of modern drama and outclasses anything I've ever seen. The production is superb - from Thomas Newman's score and the recreation of the 80s to the very subtle but poignant touch of having the Twin Towers appear.

The script is out of this world - witty, sincere, affecting and - most importantly of all - so, so real. Tony Kushner touches every corner of our hearts with his words, always full of thought and meaning. He tackles important issues - AIDS, race, love - with tremendous understanding and sensitivity.

But without a doubt, the crowning triumph of the whole enterprise - and this is saying something, given the quality of all other facets - is the acting. From Al Pacino's heartless Roy Cohn to Meryl Streep's Rabbi/Mother Pitt to Emma Thompson's Angel/Nurse/Homeless Person, including Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Jeffrey Wright and (especially) Mary Louise Parker, there is no praise high enough. These surely must be performances of a lifetime, and I certainly cannot envisage a better ensemble.

Breathtaking. Outstanding. Out of this world.

See it.

"In touching you we touch all humanity"
Wonderful wonderful wonderful!

HBO have become a centre for excellence. Angels is a jewel in their crown. Wonderful direction, moving music, incredible writing, superb acting.

Tony Kushner's extraordinary stage plays were wonderful theatrical events because you could see the wires and were hyper aware of the theatricality of the whole event.. some of this has been lost but more than made up for by the incredible CGI additions. Things that were troubling in the staging become moments of humour and wonder. Never has the angel been so awsome, haunting and beautiful.

Kushner dares us to pay attention by writing long and involved scenes. He doesn't seek to ease the audience by cutting between lots of short scenes. He gives his characters the ability to voice themselves even in the depths of pain, sorrow or madness. Their voices cry out for themselves and for all humanity. This is a time specific play but universal in it's themes. They are specific characters but speak for us all.

Dismiss this at your peril.