RENT
The film adaptation of RENT certainly has its flaws, none more offensive than that which it inherited from its source material: the death of homosexual transvestite Angel and the miraculous survival of Mimi because of the endurance of “straight” love. Of course, the medium of film manages to take things to a new level: Angel, when dying, is emaciated and covered with sores, but Mimi, although sweating profusely, looks more like she has stepped out of a sauna at the gym when it seems as though her death is imminent. That another way in which one satisfy the conservative masses, you see: let the gay man die painfully because of his HIV-infection, which is what the conservative masses believe is right and justified and, to an extent, an awful shame. In this way, the conservative masses can feel really proud of themselves for feeling sorry for the gay man who dies of AIDS, even though they’re really happy and validated when the straight girl suffering from the same disease lives.
Musical Cyberspace 
Don’t worry, Andy, I’m familiar with the story. It doesn’t make a difference to the analogy between RENT and West Side Story that Kevin was trying to make. If anything, it highlights the fact that Tony and Maria’s cause of death, unlike Angel and Mimi’s, are very different indeed. I wish Richard Rodgers had been around to tell Jonathan Larson to change the ending to RENT…
David, I really enjoy reading your posts. They show one can discuss musical theatre just the same way one discusses other genres, like “straight” plays and general literature. I like that.
While I agree with a lot of what David is saying, I think it’s inaccurate to say that Collins and Angel’s love was any more profound than Roger and Mimi’s.
Collins and Angel’s love was just more stable.
Gah!!!! Internet service lost for an entire day. And of course, by now, David has already beaten me to taking apart all the RENT related aspects of Andy’s posts. Oh well, might as well do the rest.
My initial reaction to your post was to laugh out loud and start trying to think of a clever one-liner with which to dismiss it. On reflection, though, your post calls for a slightly more thorough treatment. Your post is a hysterical caricature of the kind of ideology that, among other things, spawned RENT. But you apparently take that caricature seriously – and so I have to take you seriously too.
You’ve got a flair for pontificating about everything wrong with the world. There’s disease, famine, and war! And likewise, you’ve got a flair for pontificating about how we should fix the world. We should have cures for major diseases! People should care more! People shouldn’t be lazy! People shouldn’t be bigoted! It’s Reagan’s fault!
You know how much good these kinds of meandering sermons do? None. And less than none: the prevailing attitude among the people I know who habitually spout these sermons is: “Well, I’m aware of what’s wrong with the world, and of how much better the world should be, and I’m very loud about being aware, so I’ve done my part! God forbid I should actually concern myself with anything as minuscule as taking practical actions to solve specific problems.”
You’re like a man who comes across a kid bleeding to death in a ditch and reacts by delivering a ten minute diatribe about how horrible it is that this kid should be lying there; how terrible a world that let’s this sort of things happen is; and how this sort of thing just shouldn’t happen without ever stopping to consider that maybe the kid would prefer it if you just shut your mouth and provided some bandages.
It doesn’t matter how much you say, “We should have a cure for AIDS! People should pay more attention to worldwide famine!” It doesn’t do squat for a single AIDS or famine victim. All it does is make you feel better about yourself.
And worst of all, your didactic smugness and your cheaply cynical view of your fellow human beings is an insult to the thousands of people who do devote their lives to searching for cures for terminal diseases, delivering food and medical care to troubled regions of the world, or even to pushing pencils at the Red Cross or UNICEF headquarters. Many of whom do what they do because they believe in the fundamental decency of all human beings – even the well-off ones who don’t chose to pay attention to the troubles of those less fortunate than they. Either do something useful, make a specific and practical suggestion for something useful that someone else might do, or shut up.
Yes, the Reagan era sucked, but so did the Johnson era and so does the Bush era. Every generation has it’s own miseries to deal with. Yours were nothing momentous. You know what’s momentous? I grew up hearing dinner table stories from the Austrian side of my family about living through Dolfuss, Hitler, World War II, and the Soviet occupation. That’s momentous misery. Likewise, members of generations growing up today in the Sudan, or the Congo, or the Balkans, or downtown Detroit are living through momentous misery.
Finally, about your fantasy that Freddie Mercury’s death was the critical turning point in public AIDS awareness – oh, Jesus Christ, I’ve got a really unpleasant feeling that you actually believe that. Seriously, Andy, not only is this kind of tunnel-visioned hero worship unhealthy, but I sincerely doubt that Freddie himself would have wanted to be on the receiving end of it.
“No day but today/ and tomorrow as well/ and probably a few years after that” – the RENT lyric that should have been.
‘Tell me before I seek worthier pastures
And thereby restore self-esteem
How can you be so short sighted?
To look never further than this week or next week?
To have no impossible dream?’ — Che in Evita.
My “impossible dream” is to one day see AIDS, cancer, MS and so on all cured and eradicated. I want world peace. I want to see famine obliterated from the world. Your attitude tells me that you don’t want the G8 leaders to give a small percentage of their countries money to the starving people. In Canada, we’re only asking Prime Minister Martin for 7%. Even that isn’t enough, but it’s a start. Being the asshole that he is, he won’t do it. It’s the same thing as giving a small portion of money to someone so they can live. Is that too much to ask?
That child in the street of whom you speak – I certainly wouldn’t stand over him and deliver a freaking sermon to the world. I would help him in any way I could. I have been in that situation (as recently as last week, actually). A child had fallen down on the road, and a bus was coming around the corner. I jumped in front of the bus, and asked it to stop. I helped little boy off the ground, carried him to the sidewalk. Bus then went on its way.
So, maybe I should stop fighting the war against AIDS, stop giving money to the Mercury Pheonix Trust and stop telling my kids to be careful in whatever they do? Hero-worship? I think your definition of that is different than mine. I already told you how Freddie’s death affected me. You’re probably right about one thing. He wouldn’t like the hero-worship thing. I admire him. Is that wrong? I fight against AIDS because he asked the Queen fans to join the fight. That was his last request.
As far as me being smug or cynical, I have good cause to be. But it was you who started this war. If anyone is being smug, it’s you! RENT is a film! I became a RENT fan because the music was great! I could really care less about the little things that may or may not be totally accurate. The performances are great (especially Wilson’s); the songs are wonderful; it sounds and looks like RENT. It sells; it’s great; it’s bloody RENT! Shut up!
None of this changes the fact that the movie was a big pile of suck.
Everyone’s a critic. Critics are a very interesting bunch. They perform a service that no-one is interested in. You don’t need to have a degree to be a critic. It’s creative writing, really. How much credence can you give to somebody who hasn’t paid for a ticket and/or goes in with high expectations?
Again, that does not change the fact that RENT was horrible! Plus it got a 49% at Rotten Tomatoes! Ouch!