'Angels' beautiful, heart-wrenching

There could have been no better format for Mike Nichols' "Angels in America" than a television movie for HBO. On any other station, it would have been sanitized; in a movie theater, it would have been edited for time. Any alteration would have compromised this film too much.\nBut the perfect format of the pay-cable channel allowed Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play, presented in six hour-long parts and now broken equally over two DVDs, to reach the heavenly status it has as one of the best television presentations I've ever seen.\nThe story is complex, with puzzling plots and colliding characters, but "Angels" is primarily about human compassion, strength, weakness, illness and guilt, all filtered through the lens of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.\nNichols' direction is stellar, Kushner's adapted screenplay is genius and the film looks fantastic. The leading actors are a perfect octet -- everyone from Al Pacino in one of his best performances ever to Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson in multiple roles. \nIt's no surprise "Angels" swept through the Golden Globes and picked up a staggering 21 Emmy nominations, including a nod for each of the eight starring actors. Undoubtedly, it deserves every one.