Alphabetical Movie Marathon A3

Angels in America - What can I say about this film that hasn't already been said? A true work of genius. AIDS, power, politics, Reaganomics, hypocrisy, religion, homosexuality, love, sickness, forgiveness, hope, Judaism, Mormonism. There is just so much in this movie to think about. It's a little like Shakespeare - you can't get it all at first. The more you watch it the more connections you make and the more you understand. It's interesting to hear about the fears and questions people had about the millennium before it occurred without our experiences now coloring the wonder of what might happen. This script is really such a product of the time in which it was written but also so universal and still timely. It's so specific to 1985 yet not dated when you watch it now. Maybe it's because so little progress has been made to make all people free to marry and live their lives without getting the shit kicked out of them because they're gay. The fact that gay bashing is still not really treated as a hate crime is sickening but maybe films like this and Milk as well as the popularity of Ellen . . . I don't know. Are we even making strides? It's interesting that the film discusses stopping, being still, and other metaphors for the antithesis of change and here we are with a black president in an era of great and momentous change. Conservatives want us to stop progressing, stop learning, go back to the way things were forgetting that the "good old days" weren't really all that good for most of us. Liberals want to move foreward, learn, try, they have hope for an unknown but better future. Was Kushner foreshadowing the era of (hopefully) great change that we're in the midst of? God, I hope so.

There are miles of quotes but here are a few of my favorites:

"I don't understand why I'm not dead. When your heart breaks you should die."

"Respect the delicate ecology of your delusions."

"I usually say fuck the truth, but usually the truth fucks you."

"The white cracker who wrote the National Anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody could reach it."

". . . And we are not going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come."