Loved this movie ever since I saw it in biology class in 1994.
I just found out that the author of the book, Randy Shilts, was gay and died of AIDS shortly after the movie was filmed.
I never knew that... I don't think it was mentioned in the film or in the novel.
How tragic and how much more poignant are the book and movie.
I believe his film and book brought awareness to many people and saved many lives.
I, too, was very unaware of AIDS and what it entailed. I'm straight and had a very dear friend who was gay. He could barely come out because of all that went with it. When he passed away, at the young age of 33, the first thing someone asked me was "did he have AIDS?" I was angry at the time because he was killed in a tragic accident. When I saw this movie, I was very moved by the story and all the lives that AIDS has affected. I thought it was done very well but like I said, I didn't know very much about it. It sure made me aware of so much that I wouldn't have been without seeing it.
shareIt affected me deeply; I feel like it could be shown to kids at the middle school level- at least starting at 7th grade.
Kids are exposed to sex and ideas and visuals of sex so much more readily now because of the media and the internet and they really have very little skills to put the information together in a more grounded and humane perspective which this movie does so well.
Of course you appreciate it much more as an adult but you get the basic ideas in the movie and kids can definitely grasp that.
I just bought this movie on DVD and received it a couple of nights ago. My husband has never seen it and he and I watched it together completely enthralled by the story.
Randy Shilts did such an amazing job with this story. What passion... so sorry to lose him and all lives due to AIDS.
Education is the first step to prevention and the rest is up to the individual.
I bought Randy's book from a book bin. I thought I'd read a chapter before I went to sleep... bad choice.
8 hours and 500 pages later I had to put it down to go to work! I finished it when I got home from work then finally got some sleep. I've reread it 4 times since; it's one of the most enthralling books I've ever read, even 30 years later.
I only have one person on ignore, but I've had to ignore him 625 different times.
I, too, was very unaware of AIDS and what it entailed.
Oh wow, I saw it in Biology as well. Ironically in 1994. I've watched several times since. It was great seeing it school, especially growing up in Central Wisconsin.
shareRandy Shilts took an AIDS test before the book finished. He vowed to complete the book without knowing his HIV status to keep it as objective as possible. It also is not mentioned in the book that he's gay, because it's a journalistic piece, as opposed to an autobiography.
The book is much better than the movie. I do like the movie though, and I think it does accurately portray American's attitudes toward "The Gay Cancer" (yes, they really did call it that) and lack of movement curing it until it got into the blood supply, and then everyone was getting it.
The book doesn't whitewash gay responsibility the way the movie does. As good as the movie is, it doesn't do justice to the book.
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I grieved I had no shirt until I met a woman who had no pants.
not at all.
sharewhitewash gay responsibility
Sigh. What is that supposed to mean?
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What is obvious to me is your moralist assumption that having a lot of sex with a lot of partners is reprehensible. That is called sexual liberation, one of the achievements of the gay community during the seventies. And it is an achievement because it implied a disengagement form the puritanism imposed by repressive social institutions. That is called freedom. Your assertion sounds like brought from the Old Testament: a plague made to punish those who doesn't obey the law. The fact of the matter is that HIV is just a disease, a virus that existed naturally in our environment and got to interact with our bodies. No one is guilty of that. It is just nature. And sexuality and its multiple expressions are just part of our humanity. Finally, it is necessary to establish that the suggestion that film makes about the relation with the so called patient zero with the HIV spread (one of the origins of the HIV stigmatisation mainly towards gays) has proven to be false through virus DNA analisys:
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/03/new-research-questions-the-role-of-patient-zero-in-the-history-of-hiv.html
i read the book when i was 16, and i was so sad to hear that randy shilts had passed. fabulous book.
shareI believe his film and book brought awareness to many people and saved many lives.
people outside the gay community were barely talking about the subject, except to tsk or gossip or sneer.
The sad thing is that he was praised AND Booed by members of the gay community for writing this book.
One of the reason is for mentioning that important members of the community didn't behave so well at the beguining of the epidemic (bath house patrons didn't want to close their business when it became obvious that 'gay cancer' was contagious).
He bring also de Dugas's case (so called patient zero) to the knoledge of public opinion.
Shilts never said he was the first case, but he documented that he had by himself contaminated 40 people of the 240 first known cases.
(There are still a polemic about Gaetan Dugas willingly to have unprotected sex while knowing his desease was contegious)
Journalistic integrity meant a lot for Shilts. He suspected he got AIDs himself, but didn't want to be tested until the book was finished. He disn't want to be biased.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shilts