Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

The first must-see film of the year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

***SPOILERS*** Sad and extremely touching movie about a family facing the death of their 8 year old son Ben, Joshua Harris, an hemophiliac who contracted AIDS in a tainted blood transfusion. Ben who has less then a year to live with his parents Claire & Greg Madison, Linda Hamilton & Richard "John-Boy" Thomas, trying to make Ben's last days of life filled with enough love and understanding-the death experience-that would make him forget what's soon to take him away from them.Not at all easy to watch but like Ben were made to understand that death isn't the end but a new beginning for those, that's all of us, who end up facing it and it's only the living that suffer in losing a loved one to it with the person that's soon to be gone being been released from the suffering that he or she is going through. By the time that death finally overtakes little Ben he as well as everyone around him have accepted his fate knowing that his suffering-From the ravages of the AIDS virus- has finally ended for him as well as themselves.Not as dark and depressing as most films-Like "Love Story"-about a person facing death with us knowing what the end would be almost as soon as the movie opens with Ben's parents and friends of the family attending his funeral. It's in the long flashback that gets us to know the causes of Ben's death that really makes the movie so touching and able to sit through. Eevn Ben's dad Greg loses it late in the film by suffering sever depression at home and at his job as a home builder over his son Ben's fate and almost ending up in the hospital himself. It takes an extreme amount of strength and courage for Greg and his wife Claire to see the whole thing,their son Ben's impending death, through with the kindly and also suffering from depression and sleep deprivation Uncle George, Ned Beatty, a carpenter by trade constructing Ben's coffin for the brave and tragic little boy's final sendoff.

I saw this movie back in high school at age 16 and there was not a dry eye in the classroom at the end of the movie when Ben died of AIDS complications, and if I remember correctly, it was a true story. The most touching scene to me was when their fourth child was born and Ben, who was the oldest of the four boys, including the newborn, got to see him before he died. The found out that their newest son did not have hemophilia, where the blood does not clot if someone with this gets a cut. He can bleed to death if it is not treated with platelet transfusions. Ben and the other two sons did have hemophilia, and it was from a platelet transfusion that Ben got AIDS.

Children dying ... Hollywood has produced tearjerkers, depressing and uplifting versions of the story, naive ones, and this movie contains a bit of all of that. But I'm not saying this in a negative way ... the movie tries to do its best to tell the story in 90 minutes, and there will be few who don't feel coming up a tear or two while watching. It's definitely a "Hollywood TV movie", and it does have the look and feel of one. It's also a movie from the 80's, and that starts showing. But the message remains a powerful one : kids die too, and saying goodbye is painful. Aids can kill, and still scares people away. Force can be found in the medical world, in religion, and most importantly in one's own family.

If you like sad stories about the children, this one is the best. I watched this movie 5 times and every time I cried. If you know where I can buy this movie , please contact me.