Academy Award-winners Al Pacino Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson lead an all-star cast in a 6-hour HBO Films Event. Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Tony Kushner based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play: Angels in America.
]]>Amazon.comTony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining 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 theater-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 (The Graduate) 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?? Sense and Sensibility) 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?? Dog Day Afternoon)--the real-life right-wing lawyer?? notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and