Earlier this year I watched the six-hour HBO miniseries Angels in America, in which the most dominant theme was the despair caused by AIDS in the 1980s, specifically to the gay community. This two-hour movie, made (and probably set) during the early '90s, managed to hit on most of the same subject matter while at the same time more finely focusing itself on one man's struggles in particular. The movie is about a wrongful termination suit in which a gay man with AIDS is fired by his company. Tom Hanks plays this man and Denzel Washington plays his homophobic lawyer. It's an interesting struggle for both men - Hanks must fight an uphill battle, while dying, against a jury made of people from a largely AIDS-fearing society. And Denzel must overcome his own prejudices and personal beliefs in order to successfully defend Hanks and win the case. It ended up being a more moving and effective movie than I had imagined it would be, and for that I give it praise and props.
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