That night, the terminally ill Sean murmured in a dream, and he saw the blood-red Seine. That was his anger and the cry of all the forgotten AIDS people! As a film that speaks for a few people, 120 BPM records the efforts of ACT-UP, a civil organization, to prevent AIDS in very real camera language.
They had a heated discussion in the big classroom, hoping to use action to make people pay attention to AIDS and pay attention to the minorities who have been ignored and forgotten by the public. As Sean said: This country needs to know our anger because there is no AIDS prevention policy. So they went to middle school classrooms and handed out AIDS prevention leaflets to those teens and told them to protect themselves when they had sex. And asked why the principal of the middle school did not install a free condom acquisition machine in the school. They stormed the Mayer Pharmaceuticals office building and threw bags of blood in protest over the delay in releasing the results of the anti-AIDS drug tests. They negotiated the slogan of the pride parade to awaken the indifference and neglect of the AIDS community.
As one of the protagonists of the film, Sean is a very brave and funny young man and one of the founders of the anti-AIDS organization. At the beginning of the film, the audience heard his powerful speech in the discussion hall: how powerless the public power is to the homosexuality in France, we need to express our anger with actions. Fight against AIDS by fighting! However, Sean himself, as an AIDS patient, is very vulnerable, he is dying, and his life is running out of time. Just after that protest against the pharmaceutical company, he and his mates were released from the police station and sitting on the subway home, looking out the window at the passing scenery, Sean said: How AIDS has changed my life. It's like I live more intensely, like I see the world in a different light, like the world has more colors and sounds. At this time, the camera focuses on Sean's face, and the sad and contemplative expression allows the audience to see a different Sean. At this moment, the audience understands that under the young man's radical appearance, there is a poetic soul. and a strong will to live.
The film gradually shifts the narrative focus from its initial documentation of various protests to focusing on Sean's personal fate. At the first Pride parade, the audience saw Sean dancing with great concentration and enjoying the process. However, in the second pride parade, Sean, who was suffering from illness, looked serious and completely lost his enthusiasm for action. At a discussion meeting, organizers proposed putting sick people at the front of the parade to make people feel the pain. At this moment, Sean, who was sitting in the back row, suddenly stood up and yelled at the organizer: Am I not sick enough? Then left angrily.
It is undeniable that the illness has robbed Sean of his once enthusiasm. To comfort Sean, his lover Nathan accompanies him to the beach. The director used a large panorama here to shoot the two men walking towards the sea, with the rolling waves lapping their bodies. The audience watched the pair of lovers who loved each other deeply, and knew that they could not withstand the ravages of the virus, and this was their last time together.
In the last twenty minutes of the film, Sean, who has given up treatment, returns home with his mother and Nathan. In the camera, the audience saw that Sean's frail body was covered with dark spots. There is no need to persist in such a life. Sean lying on the bed told Nathan that he was ready. That same night, Nathan injected Sean's infusion line with drugs to help him end the pain and end his life.
Silence equals death. Only by taking action can those minorities who have been ignored by society gain the strength and value to continue to exist. The average heartbeat of a normal adult is 60-100 beats per minute, and the name of the film is called 120 beats per minute, which shows that the members of Act-up are working hard to let more people know about AIDS and arouse the attention of the government and society. Fighting power. Such a protest needs to be radical, and it needs a heartbeat that is more violent than ordinary people. But let's not forget that they are dying, they are fragile, and they are using their last ounce of strength to awaken a silent conscience.
Sean's companions followed his last wish and scattered his ashes at the insurance company's dinner venue. The top officials in suits and ties would prefer that AIDS patients die sooner so they can get more compensation. Then crush such hypocrisy and lies with my ashes. At the end of the film, with the sound of the heartbeat, the audience saw the members who were intoxicated on the dance floor again in the flickering light and shadow. As Sean said, AIDS makes their lives more intense, and their strength comes from vulnerability.
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