New HBO Series Presents Not-So-Angelic Agenda

Crosswalk ^ | December 10, 2003 | Cal Thomas

[NYer]

New HBO Series Presents Not-So-Angelic Agenda
Cal Thomas
Syndicated Columnist

HBO's latest film, Angels in America, is a two-part, multi-hour production that aired Sunday and Monday nights and will continue being broadcast all week.

Angels is based on the Tony Kushner play about the American homosexual experience. I didn't want to watch it, but I did, and must admit it is one of the most effective pieces of propaganda I have encountered.

Gays and lesbians are portrayed as victims -- not of their own choices but of Republicans and specifically the Reagan administration during whose second term the drama is set.

British actor Emma Thompson plays an angel appointed to anoint a man dying of AIDS and deliver the message that he has been chosen as a prophet to lead the way, ala John the Baptist. Another primary character is a Mormon man who struggles with his sexual identity before yielding to homosexuality.

Thompson told USA Today: I think that in the same way Shakespeare reinvented the human being for us, (Kushner) reinvents the sacred for us in Angels. It's very healing.

One problem: Kushner is not God, who spoke through Paul in Romans 1:24-32 about what happens when people dishonor their bodies by choosing to live a homosexual lifestyle. Simply put, the movie is blasphemous propaganda.

I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.

[NYer]

Kushner is not God, who spoke through Paul in Romans 1:24-32 about what happens when people dishonor their bodies by choosing to live a homosexual lifestyle.

One more reason NOT to go the extra bucks each month for extended cable. Anyone catch the program?

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[Pharmboy]

I tried watching it the other night in an attempt to see what the fuss was about. Had to switch it off when the two gay guys started getting touchy.

They can do what they want, but I don't have to watch.

And as far as the gays were concerned back in the 80s, there were two causes of AIDS: 1) Ronald Reagan and 2) the pharmaceutical companies.

[HarleyD]

Best thing I did was cancel my HBO subscription. Don't miss the garbage at all.

[Pyro7480]

More like Fallen Angels...

[The Iguana]

I signed up for HBO to see "Band of Brothers."

The morning after it ended, I called them up to cancel.

Never regretted it.

[highlander_UW]

Sick! Cal is right on target. And I would never subscribe to HBO even if they paid me!!

I agree. They called me and offered 3 months of free HBO and Showtime a number of months back and I told them I didn't want it. At first they thought I didn't understand it was free. They finally understood that I didn't want that sort of trash programming in my home EVEN when it was free.

[sarasota]

Unfortunately many of these HBO productions end up on the network--Band of Brothers, for example, and I expect others will follow. That's how things become mainstream. Small steps taken by cable networks who ask for premium prices to view this trash...then slowly it makes it way to the networks. Gotta watch this process, like the boiling frog analogy.

[bmwcyle]

You should have just waited for the DVD set. HBO sells all their programming.

[Semper Paratus]

And as far as the gays were concerned back in the 80s, there were two causes of AIDS:

And as far as I'm concerned in the 80's and now there is only 1 cause of Aids and if that stopped so would the spread of Aids.

[veronica]

I don't wish anything but a cure for AIDS patients, but turning victims of a behavior-related fatal disease into saints is bizarre to say the least. And in fact some of these people were responsible for truly innocent people becoming infected through blood transfusions before blood supplies were screened. Angels my rear.

[2banana]

Angels my rear.

Is this a pun?

[spectre]

Al Pacino sank to a new low. He went from macho Michael in The God Father, to a homo Lawyer hiding behind his wedding ring. When he constantly caressed and rubbed the shoulders of his apprentice, in a sexual way, while gazing into his eyes so lovingly, I wanted to puke. Why Pacino took this role is beyond me. Maybe he's gay? I don't know.

The worst part of the movie, was when they actually showed one guy picking up another guy in the park, and both of them going at it, standing up...doggie style. I swear..that did it and I was out of there.

Didn't even want to wait for the appearance of an "Angel", or to find out of the Angel was Gay as well.. This show was disturbing and disquesting.

sw

[witnesstothefall]

Anybody paying HBO money is part of the problem in this country, IMO.

[YankeeGirl]

I've been watching, it's a great drama. Pacino is excellent and the Mormon guy's wife is very good. I feel terribly sorry for those sick men and the people who cared for them. The movie is set 20 years ago when the treatments only marginally postponed the inevitable horrible death.

I've gotten a little insight into the homosexual lifestyle. I don't think it glorifies it, as a matter of fact the married Mormon struggling with his urges is quite moving. But you see plainly see how his actions have destroyed his wife, an innocent in all this. Roy Cohn is protrayed as a strong, effective person, but as creep, which I think is accurate.

I think it is an accurate portrayal of the lifestyle. It hasn't swayed me to think it's natural or okay. And I guess people make their own choices everyday that cost them their health (smoking, drinking, x-treme sports, drugs). I suppose I should have no less sympathy for aids victims as I would for a professional or amatuer athlete crippled on the playing field.

It is a horrible way to die.

[leadpencil1]

tag line

[expatpat]

I had a subscription to the Kennedy Center for years but when I saw this play, I walked out and refused to renew my subscription. (They also had other queer plays on, too).

[untwist]

The problem I have is with the overwrought stereotyping typical of gay-themed productions. You see the strait-laced Mormon married guy, who really is a gay man living a lie. Gays want to claim their population is much higher than 1 or 2% and really many, many more gays are living straight due to societal injustice. They always fall back on the Kinsey report from years ago that claims their number is 10% of the population. The whole victimization issue with no accountability for the actions that caused it is not portrayed at all. The spread was all Reagan's fault.
Also, Pacino as Roy Cohn is very compelling but the Ethel Rosenberg visit is a bit much. They still hang onto the untruth that the Rosenbergs were innocent activists and that Cohn unjustly prosecuted them to their deaths. This is historically false.