Buy Angels in America on DVD

Angels in America

HBO / Year: 2003

DVD
2-disc set

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$17.99 (10% off)
List Price: $19.99

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Synopsis

One of the finest dramatic works ever produced for the stage is adapted into a legendary television movie. We hate to sell you this masterpiece for just the nudity, but Justin Kirk ("Weeds") shucks his clothes! Essential, historic, disturbing – this one will raise the hair on the back of your neck. It's got sex, romance, gay Mormons, an old male Rabbi played by Meryl Streep and of course an angel.

3 Reasons To buy this film

One of the finest gay films made.
You'll want to watch it from beginning to end...over and over.
And as a side benefit, the film doesn't stint on nudity or gay sex.

Review

An angel comes crashing through the ceiling spraying plaster dust everywhere and startling the man in the bed. Is this a vision or a medication-induced hallucination? Who knows -- all we know is that the appearances of the angel (played by Emma Thompson with a mystified look on her face) are not the only miraculous moments in this superb, soon-to-be-considered classic film. This stunning tour-de-force from HBO films is not only a political and historical drama set in the age of AIDS, but also a powerful love story between two men. Louis (Shenkman) and Prior Walter (Kirk) are totally in love with each other in this tragedy set in at the height of AIDS hysteria in 1984. To refresh your memories, President Reagan refused to utter the words AIDS and thousands were dying of a stigmatized disease. Also in this mix in this utterly essential film are the evil Roy Cohn (Pacino) his vision Ethel Rosenberg (Streep), an old rabbi also played by Streep, gay loves, a shunned wife, a Mormon mother and some fierce politics.

Adapting stage plays for television seems like a daunting task. Taking what seems like high drama on the stage and reducing it to home television size is risky. But Tony Kusher, the playwright/adapter and Mike Nichols, the director, have done what seems impossible, they've bettered the original. How they transformed this melange of love, AIDS, Roy Cohn and angels into a transforming creation is a miracle indeed. It is our opinion that Angels in America will stand as a pinnacle of 20th century drama and this production as the best!

Angels is set in the eighties in NYC and focuses on the AIDS stricken Prior Walter who is abandoned by his over Louis. Also in this sprawling film where several actors play several roles are the McCarthy-era closet case Roy Cohn, the accused Communist spy Ethel Rosenberg, Louis's new lover Joe Pitt (Wilson), his mother Hanna (Streep, who also plays an elderly Rabbi), his wife Harper (Parker) and a enormous rather mystified angel played by Emma Thompson who also plays a Brooklyn accented nurse and a homeless woman. Perhaps the supporting player who most stands out is Jeffrey Wright who stars not only as a very gay nurse, but also as a guide in Harper's fantasies. Yes, the film is filled with fantasies -- so many we couldn't share them all here -- in fact, we wouldn't dare.

Combining masterly acting skills, we assume this whole production will win many Emmy awards, brilliant writing and Mike Nichols (The Graduate as director has paid off big-time for HBO. At the end of the 2nd climax there is a surreal, writhing energy on screen and Ethel Rosenberg says "History is about to crack wide open, millennium approaches." We couldn't agree more.

-- Scott Cranin

Product Format Information

DVD : $17.99 (2-disc set)

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
Close Caption: Yes
Region Code: 1
UPC: 026359229923

Studio : HBO

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (Primary) , English Dolby Digital Surround , Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 , English Subtitles , French Subtitles , Spanish Subtitles
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen

Customer Reviews

Awesome!

Amos Lassen wrote on 02/02/2009:

“ANGELS IN AMERICA”

AWESOME!!!

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

When I saw Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” on the Broadway Stage I was awed. Then there was news about a planned movie version that never seemed to get going. Ultimately it was done as a miniseries for HBO and the rest is history. A/A is probably the finest film done on gay life. Coming in at six hours it is powerful film making but of course it had a Pulitzer Prize winning script, a great director in Mike Nichols and an all star cast led by Meryl Strep and Al Pacino.
”Angels” looks at America in the 1980s and centers around the lives of three groups of people--a homosexual couple, Louis and Prior,
a husband and wife, Joe and Harper (he is a closeted homosexual as well) and Roy Cohn, the notorious lawyer. As the three storylines work side by side to present a gay fantasia, we see some of the most powerful acting ever seen in one movie.
The time of the play is when the fear of AIDS was at an all time high and ignorance went along with it. When Prior is diagnosed with the disease, his lover Lois walks out on him and has a relationship with Joe as his wife Harper has a near emotional breakdown. We never know if she is simply hallucinating or having visions from heaven. As Prior suffers terrible pain, he is visited by a true angel who comes to lead him to “seek out the prophet” so that he can do good in a world that has gone bad.
Six hors may seem like a long time but it flies by. As the drama looks seriously as the issues of faith, politics and sexuality in the United States at a time when we cringed in fear due to a strange disease that was killing us, we sit spellbound watching an unbelievable production.
The writer and the director are completely in tune with each other and what emerges is a gay apocalypse which is at times funny but remains a meditation on faith, morality, mortality, love and sex. Politically it is courageous. As Kushner deals with America’s hypocrisy he gives us both sides of every issue. Right wing fundamentalism and oppression is countered by humanism and the harsh, intolerant characters are countered by the divine grace that Belize (Jeffrey Wright) and others show.
Kushner has written a beautiful script that has won practically every award. But what brings “Angels” to life is the level of acting. Meryl Streep mesmerizes in multiple roles--a rabbi, Prior’s mother, and Mrs. Rosenberg. Al Pacino as Roy Cohn stuns. He presents Roy Cohn as the ultimate villain. Mary Louise Parker is Harper is amazing and Jeffrey Wright as Belize spins an incredible performance. The actors express extreme depth and are so believable that sometimes it is necessary to pinch yourself to prove you are watching a fictional account of one of the most devastating periods in gay history. As the film knocks us senseless with its beauty it also presents a picture of America that simply sat down and watched as her male citizens died a mindless death.
”Angels in America” is as close as a movie can get to being a work of art. Like all art it is flawed but taken as a whole it is a beautiful and wrenching look at America. The movie rises to incredible heights and will keep you awed for the full six hours.

(ALMOST) AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL

Old(ish) Timer wrote on 04/18/2006:

I am fortunate (and old) enough to have seen the original Broadway productions of Kushner's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning plays. The experience was genuinely transcendent. It was, therefore, with trepidation that I viewed the HBO broadcast of Mike Nichols' film version. Fear not. The power of the original plays is well preserved and translated to screen in this exceptional series. Skillful direction and flawless acting bring the genius of the language to life with the same vitality as the stage productions. Students of the plays will note the absence of some of the original material (including my own favorite soliloquy by Hanna on motion, stillness and real estate); but that's what the scripts are for. Needless to say I purchased the DVD the day it was released. Do so too. "Angels" really is one of the most important works of twentieth century literature. Once you have viewed and reviewed the film consider reading the scripts.