Early Frost DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

It's been quite awhile since AIDS has become a hot-button issue. Sure, it's still talked about, but it's not talked about in quite the "epidemic" proportions that it was when it first became an issue in the early 1980s. An Early Frost is a throwback flick that takes us back and shows us all the prejudice, hatred and misinformation that came with the disease, all told through a powerful and poignant story.

This is truly a landmark TV movie. It's release on NBC in 1985 made it the first made-for-TV movie to tackle the touchy subject of AIDS and it surely left a mark. The TV movie was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won 4, mostly for technical awards but Sherman Yellen, Ron Cowan and Daniel Lipman took home the Emmy for their powerful teleplay. Cowan and Lipman went on to create the popular TV show "Queer as Folk." But you don't have to be homosexual or struggling with AIDS to find this movie to be a powerful statement at the national sentiment back in the mid-80s.

Michael Pierson (Aidan Quinn) seemingly has it all. He's a big-shot lawyer that just got promoted to partnership, he lives in a beautiful lakeshore house in Chicago and has a loving family. But the loving family part is something that he wants to hold on to, and that's why he has never told them that he is gay, and living in that beautiful home with another man, Peter (D.W. Moffett). Pierson even has a private line in his office upstairs, just so his family won't be spooked that another man answers the phone. Pierson's hand is forced, though, when it's discovered that he has contracted the deadly AIDS virus, and he must reluctantly tell his family about the disease he has, and the lifestyle he leads, which drives a solid wedge right through his family.

This flick reminds us of how much intolerance there was towards homosexuals, and even moreso to those who have the AIDS virus. It must have been a very difficult flick to make, considering that time period and the high walls that surrounded those with the disease. We see all those old stereotypes come to life. People won't shake his hand, or touch him in any way, refuse to be in the same room with him and there is even some EMT's who won't take Pierson to the hospital because of his affliction. He becomes estranged from his father, played wonderfully by Ben Gazzara and sister, in a smaller role played by Sydney Walsh, but continues to form a strong bond with his mother, played phenomenally by Gena Rowlands. I didn't really like the hollow D.W. Moffett, though, as Pierson's lover Peter. He doesn't really bring a lot to the screen, and except for a minor outburst, is rather puppet-like throughout the duration. But look for a marvelous performance from John Glover as Victor, a very outspoken AIDS patient who Pierson befriends. We don't see a lot from him, but the little we do see is just great, displaying some nice range and adding a lot of color to some fairly bland scenes. But Aidan Quinn is the centerpiece of this movie, and he delivers an very solid performance here as Pierson, displaying some wonderful range and inhabiting the character to perfection with Pierson's inhibitions and fears conveyed marvelously.

The script by Cowan and Lipman, with Yellen receiving a story credit, doesn't pull any punches or try to sugarcoat what was happening back then. People were scared to death of this virus, and any rumor they might have heard about it was automatically construed as fact. They do a marvelous job here with the story, with some great dialogue, blending some nice bits of humor in with some heartfelt dramatic sequences. The script isn't perfect, though, and one of my bones about the script was the very end. It's rather anti-climactic, and while it's good that they end it not like you'd expect it to end, it's still just a really flat ending. I understand what they were trying to do here, but it just didn't work for me. Besides that, we only really get his family's side of the story, and we get nothing about his work-life, and how they react to this. Some of that would've been nice to see.

While this flick surely was an eye-opener, and probably meant to be a reactionary piece, when you view it today, it's more of a turn-back-the-clock piece. It's a little bit of a cultural history lesson that shows us where we were 26 years ago, and how far we've come today.

The artwork here says there are a few special features here, but apparently those don't come with the screener copy that I received. So, I can't tell you about the Living With AIDS doc*mentary, since that seems to be all we get here. Sorry.

This was a TV movie, so it's presented in the fullscreen format, in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

The sound was handled through the Dolby Digital 2.0 format.

The front cover is pretty nice, as we get the main four names at the top, even though the fourth name (Terry O'Quinn from Lost) isn't too big of a part here as a doctor. Anyway, we see a shot of Rowlands, Gazarra and the grandma played by Sylvia Sidney in the top left corner. To the left of that they list the awards it has won, and then there's a very large shot of Aidan Quinn dominating the right side of the cover, with the title card and some critic quotes on the left. The back cover isn't so good though. We get another critic quote at the top, some random shots, a synopsis and even more quotes at the bottom, along with a special features box. The back cover leaves a LOT of white-space on it, and it looks like it was done by an amateur. The front cover is good, but the back cover could really use some work.

An Early Frost, while a pretty damn poor title, is a incredibly moving film, that was a groundbreaking movie when it was released, and today could be used as a history lesson or perhaps a cultural warning, given what we know now about the disease.