HBO's 'The Normal Heart': Your Thoughts

[Wickedmonkey332]

Having never seen the play; I really enjoyed the movie and found a few moments tear-jerking. I felt some of the scenes were a bit awkward on film and I think would have been less so in a theater.

[GavestonPS]

"Which means we had the original Prior and the original Louis (Spinella and Mantello), two out gay actors who came to represent the gay Everymen of our generation, to my way of thinking."

And which is why I only lasted about 10 minutes the first time I tried to watch the film. When Spinella arrived, covered with KS, it was just too much for me.

I later watched the film in the middle of the night by myself, which, for some reason, I found easier to take.

"The further I sit with my response to my Normal Heart viewings this week, the more irrelevant the quibbles seem to me."

Agreed, with the possible exception of the lights going out on the disco ball TWICE. How could Murphy not have known that image was too strong to repeat?

[FindingNamo]

And also Ned's Dancing with the Stars segment featuring Julia Roberts.

[GavestonPS]

^^^One of my favorite scenes. But we can't agree about everything, can we, Namo?

[PalJoey]

MUST READING: Sarah Schulman on Larry Kramer, Ned Weeks and The Normal Heart:






VULTURE.COM: Writer and Activist Sarah Schulman on The Normal Heart, Being Friends With Larry Kramer, and the Whitewashing of AIDS History

[haterobics]

Now Sarah is rehashing her Rent rant, that straight people are portrayed as the heroes of AIDS, against Dallas Buyers Club? I mean, it's not a fictional movie, but the story of one actual guy...

[PalJoey]

Sarah is very much like Larry...you don't necessarily read her for the answer. You read her for the argument.

[Kad]

To be fair, Sarah is not the only one with that argument against Dallas Buyer's Club.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

At least she didn't say "cisgender," amirite?

[FindingNamo]

First of all haterobics. she isn't rehashing the RENT point, about which she was completely correct. (Jonathan Larson took the lesbian plot from People in Trouble.) The friends of the guy in Dallas Buyers Club say he wasn't straight at all.

Second of all, what a great read! I miss going to dinner parties with her. Humble brag.

[haterobics]

I recall "straight people are the heroes of AIDS" being verbatim one of the many criticisms she had about Rent. Admittedly, it has been years since I read that book, though.

[FindingNamo]

Yes, but, it's hard to disagree with her conclusions about which stories get the approval of the dominant culture.

[Kad]

I was most surprised as her dismissal of How To Survive a Plague as The Five White People Who Saved the World, while praising The Normal Heart, written by rich white guy Larry Kramer and about rich white guys almost exclusively.

[FindingNamo]

But unlike anybody else in the world, Schulman is unafraid to say, "Here is what my friend did well, here is what my friend was totally wrong about." She also does so fearlessly on her own work in her book "My American History." "This is where I was right when I published this ten years ago and this is where I was dead wrong in my thinking."

She nailed Kramer on the Vito Russo funeral harangue, she wonders why other wealthy connected white gay men weren't moved to try to do something with all their access and connections.

I'm surprised by the negative reaction and wonder if people are feeling implicated by her criticisms in some way?

[Someone in a Tree2]

Namo, if it's not too much of a threadjack, could you share a few reasons why you referred to the HRC as " the odious HRC". Is this a widely held position among those reading this on BWW? I'm genuinely curious, having missed any critical talk of the organization out here in LA (and having financially contributed to their odiousness for the last decade).

[PalJoey]

I don't think she would necessarily go that route. Sarah has always been possessed of her own mind. She never mouths anyone's vogue platitudes...unless she came up with them first and then they were appropriated.

If you haven't read her, you should!

[FindingNamo]

I recommended her highly several years ago on here and poor DG went out and read "Rat Bohemia" and he loathed it. Maybe as much as I loathe the HRC.

Someoneinatree, the HRC antipathy is my thing. I mean, others may share it but I bray the most about it on BWW. I think they are a lousy do-nothing organization that raises insane amounts of money to pay for itself and give awards to straight people (not that a lot of straight people don't deserve awards, but the awards ceremonies are just excuses to raise money for themselves).

They always take the most assimilationist and conservative approaches, they always warn real activists that "now is not the time" to push for AIDS funding from Reagan and Bush, to bring up gay marriage, for what have you (and I mean that, for what you have thanks to the in the trenches work of others who are not the HRC) … and then when REAL activists get things done they show up with their stupid ass equal sign posters and a spokesman to start in with all this "we" stuff. The comic Kate Clinton put it best when she lamented, "An entire complicated social movement reduced to an equal sign."

Hate. Them. Won't let my dog drink out of their equal sign bowl on Commercial Street in Provincetown. We'll cross the street and go to Joe and hang out there and maybe run into Seth Rudetsky or PalJoey or Judy Gold and lap up our water there.

[Someone in a Tree2]

^ Thanks so much for the heads up. I'll give your take on HRC serious thought. When I'm up in Ptown myself this summer, I'll know which side of Commercial St to find you on (or your dog).

[FindingNamo]

She's the cute one.

[FloydJoe2]

Congrats to the entire cast and crew and, especially, Larry Kramer on the Emmy win!

[rjm516]

Larry Kramer's presence was the best part of these Emmys!