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The Normal Heart
#1
The Normal Heart
There's so much to talk about in regards to this movie and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The movie had me racked in sobs, even on the second viewing.

For those who have seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts. For those of you who haven't, please do. It's an extremely important film. Borrow a friend's HBOGo login if you have to.
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#2
RE: The Normal Heart
I will give it a viewing. Smile
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
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#3
RE: The Normal Heart
(May 31, 2014 at 2:23 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: There's so much to talk about in regards to this movie and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The movie had me racked in sobs, even on the second viewing.

For those who have seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts. For those of you who haven't, please do. It's an extremely important film. Borrow a friend's HBOGo login if you have to.

Hm. I Don't feel like sobbing but I will Definitely Check it out.
Have you seen Dallas Buyers Club? It's also about AIDS, I heard it
was a fine movie.
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#4
RE: The Normal Heart
My wife and I watched it earlier in the week. I thought it was emotionally compelling on several levels and highly recommend it. I plan on watching it again.

I thought the 'do-nothing establishment' angles were overplayed, but can understand why given the political goal of the original play (1985); namely, to start a conversation via a kick in the head. Effective even if not wholly accurate.

Time has tempered our expectations for a quick cure; I am aware of only one case considered cured. I had to intentionally suppress my awareness of this fact in order to fully appreciate Weeks' indignant rage at the perceived lack of urgency rather than considering it sheer madness.

I really like the film and there's a lot more to discuss, but hesitate for now due to the spoiler factor.
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#5
RE: The Normal Heart
(May 31, 2014 at 4:34 pm)OhWord Wrote:
(May 31, 2014 at 2:23 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: There's so much to talk about in regards to this movie and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The movie had me racked in sobs, even on the second viewing.

For those who have seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts. For those of you who haven't, please do. It's an extremely important film. Borrow a friend's HBOGo login if you have to.

Hm. I Don't feel like sobbing but I will Definitely Check it out.
Have you seen Dallas Buyers Club? It's also about AIDS, I heard it
was a fine movie.

It was great, but completely different from The Normal Heart. It's more about civil rights than anything else.
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#6
RE: The Normal Heart
(May 31, 2014 at 4:39 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote:
(May 31, 2014 at 4:34 pm)OhWord Wrote: Hm. I Don't feel like sobbing but I will Definitely Check it out.
Have you seen Dallas Buyers Club? It's also about AIDS, I heard it
was a fine movie.

It was great, but completely different from The Normal Heart. It's more about civil rights than anything else.

Found the movie! I'm going to watch it in a bit.
Just a warning, If I cry... I will beat you up.
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#7
RE: The Normal Heart
(May 31, 2014 at 4:34 pm)Cato Wrote: My wife and I watched it earlier in the week. I thought it was emotionally compelling on several levels and highly recommend it. I plan on watching it again.

I thought the 'do-nothing establishment' angles were overplayed, but can understand why given the political goal of the original play (1985); namely, to start a conversation via a kick in the head. Effective even if not wholly accurate.

Time has tempered our expectations for a quick cure; I am aware of only one case considered cured. I had to intentionally suppress my awareness of this fact in order to fully appreciate Weeks' indignant rage at the perceived lack of urgency rather than considering it sheer madness.

I really like the film and there's a lot more to discuss, but hesitate for now due to the spoiler factor.

I think the "do-nothing establishment" angles were perfect, and accurate. These guys were desperate, and the establishment flatly refused to help until they were personally affected by the epidemic. I was really young (like, eight) when I heard about the AIDS virus for the first time, and I remember thinking how high the numbers were and wondering why no one had done anything until that point.

As far as spoilers, there aren't any in the OP, and I invited discussion. Spoiler alerts are implied. I say go on with your bad self!

*SPOILERS AHEAD!!!*

I've been reading more about Ed Koch. As many great things as he did with the Gay Rights Movement, he practically killed any number of gay men because of his willful ignorance of the AIDS epidemic. And he's not the only one. Reagan ignored it for years, also. The British Media and government were on top of it, resulting in very relatively few people contracting the virus at that time.

(May 31, 2014 at 4:49 pm)OhWord Wrote:
(May 31, 2014 at 4:39 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: It was great, but completely different from The Normal Heart. It's more about civil rights than anything else.

Found the movie! I'm going to watch it in a bit.
Just a warning, If I cry... I will beat you up.

Dunno

Hey- I didn't make the movie!
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#8
RE: The Normal Heart
I watched one called "We were here" I think it was called that. That's one of the best documentaries I've seen about HIV. It must have been crazy living at that time as a homosexual.


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





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#9
RE: The Normal Heart
(May 31, 2014 at 2:23 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: There's so much to talk about in regards to this movie and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The movie had me racked in sobs, even on the second viewing.

I must be a heartless bitch: I didn't even get teary. :p

I did think it was a very good movie, though, and am going to try to watch it again when I gett thte time. [EDIT: Holy shit, I can't spell... lol]

Quote:For those who have seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts. For those of you who haven't, please do.

About half an hour is my dad said disgustedly, "I can't take this anymore" and went up to bed. Undecided Some people just can't handle the idea of two men having sex. I agree that I think everyone needs to see this movie, but some people will just never make it through. That's too bad because The Normal Heart was an amazing love story.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
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#10
RE: The Normal Heart
Some PBS channels carry We Were Here on occasion. (check your sub channels)


I've watched We Were Here and consider it excellent. It ran, as I recall 90 minutes, they could have done 900 minutes and not told 1% of what happened.

My first friend, that I knew of at the time, died of AIDS 6/86. (as it happened, there were several before that one, but that was before the internet era and keeping up with people as they moved away after college was difficult)

The second was 2/87, and the doctors were shocked with that case. We were in the midwest, and while D's doctors had seen other cases before him, D was the first to never have traveled out of state, implying he had contracted it locally, and hadn't got it elsewhere and come home to die.

In those days, we were already aware of potentially years long incubation, but back then, if you got sick, death came quickly and it was inevitable. The first died a few hours after hospital admit, D lasted a few days. Slowly, ever so slowly, when someone went to the hospital, they would last longer.

I had a boyfriend some time later who was in an early beta interferon (betaseron) clinical trial. At the time, of all the drug trials (we had books we could buy to research them!!!) we both thought the betaseron was the BEST chance. It was indescribable to hold a vial of it in my hand and watch him inject himself. Was it THE cure? We could tell in his case the progression of symptoms stopped and receded. It was heady stuff.

Some time later he called me VERY upset. The trial was canceled!! As it turns out, for reasons unknown, betaseron seemed only to help a tiny fraction of those in the study group. We had a very tough time for a while, no more betaseron was available.

It wasn't too much later, betaseron was made available for a form of leukemia. His doctor immediately diagnosed him with that, and he was back in business.


I'd say for my peer group, 1995 was when it turned around. I've lost a few friends since then, but '95 was when it turned the corner.


So far, I've lost 40 friends, acquaintances, and men I've dated. I was a hospice volunteer for a few years, but I found I am not cut out for that. I fell in love with one of the men in the network, and that was it for me being able to volunteer. Brian never knew or suspected I had fallen in love with him, his mom noticed but we didn't talk about till after he passed.

Other friends of mine who survived had worse passages through the crisis than many who died. I envied family members, they only had to go through it once and only lose one person, for me it seemed endless.

I have pictures of my friends and myself at parties long before it started; in some of those pictures, half the people eventually died.

I made a quilt panel for the NAMES project, I've read the names of some of my friends that died at the Ellipse in front of the White House. I've seen parents/families at their absolute worst behavior and I've seen others rise to exceptional levels too.

There are 4 moms, not too far from here, they have a little support group of their own, they've each lost a son to AIDS. It's tough, so very tough, for me to be around them, I've had survivors guilt off and on since '87, I'd think I'd get acclimatized to it someday, but it never happens.
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