HBO's The Normal Heart

Hello Bloggie!

I watched this movie the night it premiered. Almost 2 months ago I believe. I've wanted to chat about it since then but couldn't stop tearing up thinking about it. Today, I've garnered enough strength :). I haven't seen Dallas Buyers Club but from what I've heard, the two are related. Since I'm such a wimpy and emotional person, after watching the normal heart, I'll have to be uber strong to watch the other.

To put it simply, the movie is about the early years of the discovery of HIV/AIDS and how at the time, it was believed to be a punishment from God to gays. That is the core of the movie. I give tons of kudos to the writer. It's a well written story and I don't think I could ever go see the play. I would be the one sobbing my heart out in the theater. The actors and actresses were also fantastic! The depiction of the disease's lifetime? Fantastic! Why did this movie stand out for me you say? Let me tell you.

First, this happened less than 30 years ago not a century ago. It's super recent and there are still traces of the thought that HIV/AIDS only affects homosexuals. I didn't even know it was called "gay cancer". The way the sufferings of people back then was portrayed, was extremely heartbreaking. Yet, a part of me feels that the sufferings were probably much more worse. Worse than any camera could ever possibly capture. I can't imagine treating a fellow human being in such horrific manners. There are so many heartbreaking scenes in the movie. How hard people had to fight to get this horrible disease acknowledged, how people had to watch helplessly as their loved ones died, how after 30 years this is still a serious global issue.

The list goes on. Another lesson, the doctor researching the disease is in a wheelchair because her parents didn't get her the polio vaccine. Here we are years later and a lot of people have now become proponents of anti-vaccination!! It's really amazing how people have forgotten that these vaccines resulted from the terrors caused by the same diseases they are protecting us from. It's not as if a vaccine is produced and then we hope that a disease will arise from which we are protected by the new vaccine. Thanks to the internet and books, one can simply look up the history of diseases and be grateful that protection exists.

This movie also got me thinking about human reactions when there's a new epidemic. The helplessness we feel as humans each time there is something new, the amount of energy and time dedicated to researching new diseases and finding cures. How much we've accomplished in the area of science is mind blowing! I'm so very grateful we've come a long way. Hopefully more progress will be made to deal with the diseases currently without cures, and no new ones surface.

I didn't want to exploit various scenes in the movie so as not to ruin it for anyone who's interested in seeing it. If you can, watch the movie or the play (if you're wayyyy braver than I). If you've seen Dallas Buyers Club, please let me know what you learnt from the movie.

Enjoy the rest of your week,
Tonia xxx