{"id":2365,"date":"2012-10-16T12:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T19:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com.php5-21.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com\/wordpress\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2012-10-16T12:01:41","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T19:01:41","slug":"movie-review-how-to-survive-a-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/movie-review-how-to-survive-a-plague\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Movie reviews should have some semblance of objectivity.\u00a0 This one will not.\u00a0 Sorry about that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I lived in New York from 1979 to 1990, which means I was at the epicenter of the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.\u00a0 When it began, in 1981, I was a deeply closeted student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.\u00a0 I had zero gay life at the time, and I don\u2019t think the disease even began seeping into my consciousness until at least 1983, which is the first time I knew someone who was diagnosed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The stunning new documentary How to Survive a Plague<\/em><\/strong> begins four years after this, when there had already been several hundred thousand worldwide deaths to this horrifying illness. It\u2019s the story of ACT UP, an activist organization which arose in response to the government\u2019s slow reaction to the epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The organization was famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) for its aggressive civil disobedience tactics.\u00a0 It launched nonviolent but highly disruptive assaults on City Hall, the National Institutes of Health, and perhaps most infamously, St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n

The problem that ACT UP (which stands for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which makes it a sort of compound acronym) was trying to solve was the glacial pace of research and drug testing.\u00a0 The amazing thing about their story is that they actually largely succeeded in their goals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This was a story that I knew pretty well, but I still found the film riveting, because it is so well made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Activist Peter Staley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One big challenge the filmmakers had was the fact that the footage they needed was mostly decades old, and many of the principal players were dead.\u00a0 They surmounted this challenge admirably, and the film presents a lively cast of fiercely dedicated characters.\u00a0 These were people whose lives had been utterly disrupted by this horribly, mysterious and deadly disease.\u00a0 For them, the stakes couldn\u2019t have been higher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t remember the last time I saw a film that actually made me feel ashamed.\u00a0 I sat there watching the ferocious dedication these men and women had to saving lives.\u00a0 They put themselves, their very bodies, on the line, time and again.\u00a0 What was I doing during those years?\u00a0 Auditioning for acting parts, working as a word processor, and going to plays and movies.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t I help?\u00a0 Just because I, as a still-closeted person, was relatively unaffected by the plague?\u00a0 Shame on me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Larry Kramer, relentless and indispensible agitator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0I was inspired by these activists, many of which knew they themselves were doomed.\u00a0 They knew that the answers they were demanding would most likely come too late to benefit them.\u00a0 They were trying to stave off the holocaust for the future.\u00a0 And as anyone who has benefitted from the protease inhibitors that have helped arrest the development of the virus can tell you, they largely managed to do just that.\u00a0 Sure, there\u2019s no cure yet, but an HIV+ diagnosis is not usually the impending death sentence that it was in 1988.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One more great thing about the movie is that it pulls off a jaw-dropping reveal very late in the movie that I won\u2019t spoil.\u00a0 This gimmick gave the movie even more power than it already had.<\/p>\n

If you can take revisiting such a painful time, I highly recommend you check out How to Survive a Plague<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Directed by David France.<\/p>\n

Average Rating: 4.7<\/span> out of 5<\/span> based on 294<\/span> user reviews.<\/span><\/div><\/p>

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