Angels in America - pacino

Al Pacino as Roy Cohn in an amazing scene with intelligent text and great acting

Doctor: Nobody knows what causes it.

And nobody knows how to cure it.

The best theory is that we blame a retrovirus.

The human immunodeficiency virus.

Its presence is made known to us by the useless antibodies

which appear in reaction to its entrance into the bloodstream

through a cut, or an orifice.

The antibodies are powerless to protect the body against it. Why?

We don't know.

The body's immune system ceases to function.

Sometimes the body even attacks itself.

At any rate it's left open to a whole horror house of infections

from microbes it usually defends against.

Like those Kaposi Sarcomas,

those lesions on your arms. Or your throat problem.

Or the glands.

We think it may also be able to slip past the blood-brain barrier into the brain.

Which is, of course, very bad news.

And it's fatal.

And we don't know what percent of people

with suppressed immune response is.

Roy: Very interesting, Mr. Wizard.

Why the fuck are you telling me this?

Doctor: Well I have just removed one of three lesions.

Which biopsy results will probably tell us is a Kaposi Sarcoma lesion.

And you have a pronounced swelling

of glands in your neck, groin and armpits.

Lymphadenopathy is another sign.

And you have Oral candidiasis.

And maybe a little more fungus under the fingernails

of two digits on your right hand.

So. That's why I'm...

Roy: Uhh. This disease.

Doctor: Syndrome.

Roy: Whatever.

It afflicts mostly homosexuals and drug addicts.

Doctor: Mostly. Hemophiliacs are also at risk.

Roy: Homosexuals and drug addicts.

So why are you implying

that I - what are you implying Henry?

Doctor: I don't think that I was implying anything.

Roy: I'm not a drug addict.

Doctor: Oh, come on Roy.

Roy: What? Well come on, well what?

You think I'm a junkie?

Henry? Do you see tracks?

Doctor: This is absurd.

Roy: So say it.

Doctor: Say what?

Roy: Say, Roy Cohn you are a

Doctor: Roy.

Roy: You are a...come on.

Not Roy Cohn, you are a drug fiend.

Roy Marcus Cohn you are a...

go on Henry it starts with an 'H'.

Doctor: Oh, I'm not going to get into -

Roy: With an 'H' Henry.

And it isn't hemophiliac! Come on!

Doctor: Why are you doing this Roy?

Roy: No. I mean it. Say it.

Say, Roy Cohn, you are a homosexual.

And I will proceed systematically to destroy your reputation.

And your practice.

And your career. In the state of New York Henry.

Which you know I can do.

Doctor: Roy. You have been seeing me since 1958.

Apart from the face-lifts, I have treated you for everything from Syphilis...

Roy: From a whore in Dallas!

Doctor: from syphilis, to venereal warts, in your rectum.

Which you may have gotten from a whore in Dallas,

but it wasn't a female whore.

Roy: So, say it.

Doctor: Roy Cohn, you are ... [sighs]

you have had sex with men.

Many, many times Roy.

And one of those men, or any number of them has made you very sick.

You have AIDS.

Roy: AIDS.

You know you're problem Henry

is that you are hung up on words.

On labels.

That you believe that they mean what they seem to mean.

AIDS. Homosexual. Gay. Lesbian.

You think these are names

that tell you who someone sleeps with.

They don't tell you that!

No?

No!

Like all labels. They tell you one thing.

One thing only.

Where does an individual so identified fit in the food chain.

In the pecking order.

Not idealology or sexual taste,

but something much simpler

Clout.

Not who I fuck.

Or who fucks me, but who will pick up the phone when I call.

Who owes me favors.

This is what a label refers to.

Now to someone who does not understand

this homosexual is what I am

because I have sex with men.

But really this is wrong.

Homosexuals are not men who sleep with other men.

Homosexuals are men who in 15 years of trying

cannot pass a pissant anti-discrimination bill through city council.

Homosexuals are men who know nobody,

and whom nobody knows.

Who have zero clout.

Does this sound like me Henry?

Doctor: No.

Roy: No. I have clout.

Lots.

I pick up this phone, I punch 15 numbers

do you know who is on the other end?

In under 5 minutes Henry.

Doctor: The President.

Roy: Better Henry. His wife.

Doctor: I'm impressed.

Roy: I don't want you to be impressed.

I want you to understand.

This is not sophistry.

And this is not hypocrisy.

This is reality.

I have sex with men.

But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true

I bring the guy I am screwing to the White House.

And President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand.

Because what I am is defined entirely by who I am.

Roy Cohn is not a homosexual.

Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man,

Henry, who fucks around with guys.

Doctor: Ok Roy.

Roy: And what is my diagnosis Henry?

Doctor: You have AIDS Roy.

Roy: No. Henry. No.

AIDS is what homosexuals have.

I have liver cancer.

Doctor: Well whatever the fuck you have, it's very serious.

And I haven't got a damn thing for you.

Bethesda has a new drug called 'EZT'

with a two year waiting list that even I can not get you on to.

So pick up the phone Roy.

And dial the 15 numbers and tell the First Lady

that you need in on an experimental treatment for liver cancer.

Because you can call it any damn thing you want to Roy,

but what it boils down to ...

is very bad news.