The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
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This is simply one of the best movies I've ever seen about the AIDS crisis. Moving, tough and beautiful all at the same time... 100% recommended.
The cast and crew no doubt, found this a difficult movie to make. Being barely a teenager in the early - mid 80's, this movie pushed a lot of buttons for me. The tragedy, the fear, the advertisements on TV, the statistics and newspapers kept me firmly in the closet and firmly and completely non sexual. I understand the sexual scenes were required and the promiscuity were factual and needed to be shown, I did find it an extremely confronting movie but, I couldn't recommend it to anyone more. It's one of the must see movies of the 21st century.
This is an amazing film, about a topic generally not discussed openly. The cast really did this justice. they really brought the film to life. I totally recommend this movie to everyone. This is about a piece of history that is crucial to the future. This movie brought to light parts of history that some people know nothing about and gives some background knowledge on the Aids epidemic. If you enjoyed this film i recommend you try 'And The Band Played On' from 1993 and 'How To Survive A Plague' from 2012 The musical 'Rent' also briefly touches on the topic. With a great director and an amazing cast and an even better story and message this movie is a must see.
This is without any doubt the best (semi-)biopic I've seen in years. Maybe because it felt like a very personal movie, but that's not the only reason. Mark Ruffalo is probably one of my favorite actors and for some reason it took Hollywood years to give the man the acting jobs he deserves. As Ned Weeks (who's actually a fictitious Larry Kramer - written by Larry Kramer) Ruffalo finally proves himself an actor who manages to get under your skin. While this movie reminded me of the miniseries Angels in America and the documentary Sex Positive, it certainly comes out as one of the best films concerning gay topics in a long time (apart from Pride, which is probably one of my favorite pictures about homosexuals ever). With incredibly strong speeches from Ruffalo, but also Taylor Kitsch, Joe Mantello (goosebumps!), Julia Roberts and Jim Parsons, this is a very actor-driven feature. Probably because it originally is a theater play. Although The Normal Heart sometimes is a bit too sentimental, it never bothered me due to the fantastic writing and dialogue. In a time that was emotionally devastating, everyone tried to cope with the new situation in their own way. Some people are more sanguineous than others and that makes social relations hard, even impossible in some cases. On the other hand everyone tries to find love, tries to be appreciated and cared for, even the most spirited and loud of all. The Normal Heart is a film with a heart, a lot of pathos, layered characters, top notch acting and superior dialogue-writing. HBO did it again.