3 Needles review by Jackass Tom
3 Needles is broken up into three separate vignettes each detailing the lives of people whose are affected by AIDS. The movie is shot completely outside of the United States and in two of the three really shows a side of AIDS that people in North America only hear of in newspapers.
The first story, Fortitude of the Buddha, opens in a Chinese village. A very pregnant Jin Ping (Lucy Lui, speaking Mandarin which caught me completely off guard) is running human blood illegally to the black market in a little white van. Not only does she run the blood, but she instructs others on how to administer the procedure to work a blood donor clinic in small poor villages Giving blood is attractive to the villagers as it gives them $5.00 cash in hand. One farmer, Tong Sam, tries to give blood and is denied due to a sick appearance, but his family is allowed. After some time, all of his family is dead and the rest of the village is sick. Noticing a trend, Jin Ping picks up her act and heads out.
The second story, The Passion of Christ takes place in Montreal. Denys (Shawn Ashmore) is a porn actor living in a low rent house with his parents. He seems to be the main support of the family as his dad is on death’s doorstep and his mom is only a diner waitress. She is unaware of his profession. As the story opens Denys is seen taking blood from his unsuspecting drunken father; not a good sign. Also not a good sign, he states that he doesn’t mind wearing a condom over and over before his scene. The guy knows he has AIDS but isn’t willing to let it hurt his career. When his father dies and the gig is up, Denys is discovered to have AIDS and must quit his job in infamy. His mother Olive (Stockard Channing) finds out and is in shock. She goes through an odd series of events (most of which I don’t completely understand) where she tries to get AIDS herself in order to cash out on insurance to support her family.
The third and final vignette, Innocence of the Pagans is about three Anglican nuns (Olympia Dukakis who also narrates, Chloe Sevigny, and Sandra Oh) in Africa with a simple mission: To save as many souls as possible before they were condemned to purgatory. With so many people already infected and doomed to death all they had to offer spiritual salvation; not so simple. While there they witness how backwards things are in Africa. For example, Sister Clara (Sevigny) throws away a container of used needles. One day she witnesses a lady carrying off the trash and follows her to the trash pit. In the same pit where here infected needles lay, children are forage around for glass bottles. Even worse, she learns that one of the children (maybe 6 or 7) has already been raped by a young man who hoped it cure him from a disease. While the elder nuns want to focus on salvation, Sister Clara wants to tackle the bigger task: conservation of life.
All three vignettes have their fair share of shock value; not in the horror/thriller movie sense but in the lack of humanity. In all three cases, human life is risked for money by those who should know better. The first two stories end with clever one-liners that show how “the disease” was more or less the result of a cash transaction. Other people’s lives are played with in order for someone else to make a living and survive on a monetary level. Those who don’t know better seem to take a separate set of risks that will make viewers cringe. Greed (or rather the desperation for money to survive) is one of the central themes that director/writer Thom Fitzgerald reveals is keeping the AIDS/HIV epidemic alive and growing. Lack of education and safety world-wide would be the other theme.
While these stories are shocking to see, its naïve to say “I didn’t know it was happening.” However, I must admit that while I had heard of such atrocities, seeing them acted out on screen was like a splash of ice cold water. The movie’s scenes through Africa and China reveal beautiful landscapes and are a joy to watch if you can separate yourself from the plague that is central to all three plots. While the themes of each story are downers, its interesting how the filming styles and music keeps the mood somewhat light.
Overall, I would recommend seeing 3 Needles but only if you are ready for it. This is not and easy going popcorn film.
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