So much average

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An Early Frost has to be one of the finest made for television films I've ever seen. And it is hard to believe that, in 1985, it was the FIRST movie that actually dealt with the topic. In the new millennium the mere mention of a antibiotic resistant tuberculosis was enough to cause a national panic. But, the emotions AIDS seemed to engender during that era were hostility and out and out apathy.The story centers around a young attorney, Michael Pierson--played brilliantly by Aidan Quinn--who's just made partner at his prestigious law firm. On the outside Michael seems to have everything: a great job, a great family, a posh apartment, and all of the proverbial trimmings(including a handsome boyfriend,). However, during that time, to be gay was to be damned by the conservative right wing Reagan Era Administration(owned lock, stock, and smoking barrel by the "Moral Majority"). Now, add to that Michael has just discovered that he has AIDS(the acronym that ensured certain death for thousands of people). Suddenly, the life Michael has worked so hard to conceal has come to the forefront in a major way. Upon his diagnosis Michael knows that he can no longer keep his homosexuality a secret, which ultimately heads up the ensuing drama and heart break.When I was a small child(I was four or five years old when this movie aired)I had no concept of what "AIDS" was or the epidemic, let alone this wonderful film. I was only interested in my toys and going out to play. Meanwhile, just outside of my blissful little la-la land an entire community was under seiged by an invisible terror.Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowalands co-star as Michael's parents. Their performances were nothing short of heart wrenching. Mrs. Pierson reminded me so much of my own mother after I came out about being gay. When she held her son, and protected him from his father's misplaced rage, it jarred me. In her I saw my own mom's need to love and care for me no matter what. I initially hated Nick Pierson; however, as the film progressed I began to empathize with him. Ben Gazzara was absolutely brilliant.While the film could be preachy in spots(sometimes I felt as though I was watching a PSA about AIDS. Each character took the time to do a monologue about HIV/AIDS)I realized that, at that time, there was a need for people to be educated. What I loved most about "An Early Frost" was that it gave AIDS a face and a name. The thousand of people who were treated like moral degenerates were people who worked hard, paid their taxes, had families, friends, lovers, and everything that everyone else with a pulse holds dear. Those people society spat upon were human beings too, worthy of the precious gift of life.We've come such a long way since then, but it is horrifying to know that we still have such a ways to go in order to beat AIDS. This film gave me so much more respect for people living with AIDS and those that are living with people living with AIDS.It was an excellent movie that I would like to own. It was depressing yet uplifting all at once.P.S.The extras has a documentary about a young man dying of AIDS. It will break your heart. This DVD is not for the emotionally faint. But I recommend it as you will learn a great deal.

I think this is the most interesting film that I have ever seen about the topic of AIDS, and I must admit that all the actors are exceptional, especially the gay couple performed by Aidan Queen and D.W. Moffett and Sylvia Sidney! AN EARLY FROST is a very good film and I suggest to see it, if you have not still seen it: it is tender and beautiful and well done; besides, in my humble opinion, it make us reflect about this terrible disease and tolerance, love and acceptation too. In fact, for the first time a patient with AIDS is mostly cosidered only a human being and not like a number or a statistic. Finally I appreciate the tender way to treat the topics of AIDS and homosexuality. I also believe that it is an evergreen film and TV could propose it still today; in fact it is very actual!

I was very young when this film came on television. Let me be very, very honest here: I didn't WANT to watch this film when it came out because I was young....and very misinformed.At that time, AIDS was a "gay" disease to me. And those who were stricken with it, I believed were not in the circles I was in -- so there wasn't any interest in me watching this film.Not until I came to understand the hard way that AIDS was not a gay disease - it was a disease without color, sex or shape -- and when this film came on for the second time, I understood it. This film was an important step to me in realizing this -- and right after seeing this for the second time...that's when everyone around me began succumbing to the disease and I had to experience first hand how hospitals, friends, employers, neighbors..families began to act -- just like many scenes in this made for TV film. It is a "made for TV film" which meant in those days - not a whole lot of money to get a story told. But it was done well, the emotions of those effected by this was as close to everyday emotions could get. Questions? You betcha. The acting was just fine -- except for those typical 'movie of the week' moments -- but this subject matter overcame all of that for me. I cared. I learned. I got prepared.Ground breaking to say the least, one of the most important made for TV films of the 20th century. No, it's not a 'perfect film' but for the mid-80's and now -- an important enough film, a compassionate enough film that shows the early days of one of the most horrible diseases to effect mankind...and how mankind reacts(ed)....

This film was a very courageous undertaking by all who where involved, however the love between the two men was not believable. The emotions flowed, but the body language told me otherwise.