Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Normal Heart

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 22, 2014
Price: DVD $19.97, Blu-ray $24.99
Studio: HBO/Warner


The Normal Heart movie scene

Mark Ruffalo (l.) and Taylor Kitsch in The Normal Heart.

When writer Larry Kramer hosted a gathering of gay men at his home in 1981 to discuss the “gay cancer” that was plaguing their community, he effectively launched a series of events that would change the face of the Gay Rights Movement and American activism. In 1985, he immortalized the events in the groundbreaking drama The Normal Heart, which was later revived on Broadway in 2011, garnering five Tony Award nominations. Three decades after its Off Broadway debut, The Normal Heart arrives as an HBO film starring Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) and Julia Roberts (Eat Pray Love).

Adapted for the screen by Kramer and directed by Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story), The Normal Heart tells the story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s. It explores the nation’s sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the epidemic to a city in denial. Ruffalo portrays Ned Weeks, who witnesses first-hand a mysterious disease that has begun to claim the lives of many in his gay community and starts to seek answers. Matt Bomer (In Time) plays Felix Turner, a reporter who becomes Ned’s lover; Roberts plays physician Dr. Emma Brookner, a survivor of childhood polio who treats several of the earliest victims of HIV-AIDS; Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) plays Bruce Niles, a closeted investment banker who becomes a prominent AIDS activist; and Jim Parsons (TV’s The Big Bang Theory) plays gay activist Tommy Boatwright, reprising his role from the 2011 Broadway revival.

The release includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the true story that inspired the film, featuring cast and crew interviews, and the Blu-ray & DVD also include a Digital HD copy.

The Normal Heart premiered on HBO to much press and critical acclaim in May, 2014.

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.