Buddies

An angry film, but it's a quiet, calm, insistent kind of anger which is all the more effective for its undestatement. The action is based in New York, and set around a dying AIDS patient and his 'buddy', a voluntary counsellor/visitor sent by the local gay centre. Edholm acts with intensity and conviction as the dying man railing against a government and a system that rejects him; Schachter is weaker and less believable as his buddy, though he improves as the film progresses, until by the end, as he parades outside the White House, his character and commitment are fully realised. It's a clever film, a good campaigning and educational piece, moving, funny, depressing and yet ultimately uplifting in its acknowledgment that people were beginning to realise that something had to be done, and were willing to commit themselves to doing it. The US government is seen as the ultimate villain, and mankind as the victim of a problem which can only be fought by more research, action and government money.