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13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
The saddest movie of my life, 11 January 2006
10/10
Author: Andreas Niedermayer (leeds1@gmx.at) from Klagenfurt, Austria

Go Toward the Light is one of the most powerful movies I know. It circles around one major theme, and it gains all its strength and emotional power from the tragedy it elaborates on.

Go Toward the Light is the true story of Claire and Greg Madison (Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas) and their struggle with the knowledge that their oldest son, Ben, has contracted AIDS. This hits the family with almost destructive brutality. According to the doctors, Ben has less than a year to live. As painful as it is, Claire and Greg have to accept Ben's unalterable fate. They have to put aside their own overwhelming grief and fears and prepare Ben to face his approaching death with the same love and courage with which they had been preparing him for life.

It is pretty obvious from the premise itself that this movie is emotionally very affecting. The entire movie deals with nothing but Ben's approaching death. At the very beginning the audience is introduced to the family. All three boys of the Madisons are hemophiliacs. This alone is a challenge, but Claire and Greg have always tried very hard to raise their boys as normally as possible. When Ben is diagnosed with AIDS, the emotional impact on the parents is vast, almost destructive. The main part of the movie deals with Ben himself, how his physical condition increasingly deteriorates, how he gradually loses all his vitality and strength, and how he emotionally deals with the knowledge of being destined to die in a few months.

There is nothing more painful than witnessing a child's death. This alone is tremendously depressing. Just because it is not right. It is simply not right. It must have been a very challenging task for Joshua Harris to play Ben. A kid his age does not reflect a lot about death and pain. A kid his age is supposed to live a happy, adventurous and vivid life. When you stop and think about what Ben will never experience, how much he will never do and see, you feel so sorry for him and his family. The movie drags you into the inner circle of the family and makes the emotional suffering and the pervading grief so authentic and painful that I had the feeling of icy fingers embracing my heart.

Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas do justice to the movie's theme and the emotional challenge for them as Ben's parents. We occasionally get to hear Claire's thoughts, which belong to the saddest but also the wisest inner monologues I have ever heard. This inside look into her mind adds substantial depth to the movie and makes it even more convincing. Greg, Ben's father, deals with the whole tragedy on a different level; he denies it much longer than Claire. In the end he feels like dying himself and gets panic attacks, as the emotional pressure intensifies.

The movie's heart and soul though is Joshua Harris' portrayal of Ben. As I have already indicated, this role is very demanding for such a young actor. It is awful to watch him physically deteriorate. Every shot, every camera glimpse, every minute he gets more fragile and pale. He is handling his character with so much genuine commitment that his struggle becomes even more painful and so authentic that you feel for him every single time you see his handsome face, his weary eyes and his emaciated body. When he asks his mom if he would die, his facial expressions are subtle but outstandingly genuine, as is his entire performance.

This movie is the saddest I have ever seen in my life so far. It centers around this single tragedy. Its transformation is thoroughly convincing. The effects on the family, on Claire and Greg, on Ben's brothers and on his grandparents are implemented with masterly sensitivity and smashing subtlety. It focuses around death and how a young couple has to face the ultimate test of their love and strength. Seeing your boy die and holding him in your hands when he goes towards the light – being with him when he leaves this world as you were with him when he made his first breath – this is the most painful experience for any parent. Because it is not right. This landmark drama, like none before, based on a real family's experience, brings this emotionally challenging issue to the fore – with dear compassion and remarkable wisdom that will leave you emotionally scarred.

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
helpful to kids, 18 March 2001
Author: xffanatic_4ever from Baltimore, Maryland

I saw this movie for the first time when I was about 11. I didn't really understand the effects of AIDS on a person or on their family. This very touching movie really opened my eyes to what was going on all around me. I have grown up and never forgotten this movie (I still cry when I see it on TV), and I wish other kids could see this movie and get the same message I did out of it. I also realized that people with AIDS shouldn't be stereotyped and are just like everyone else (I felt so sorry when the school wouldn't let Ben back into school because of people's ignorance). Richard Thomas' explanation of death/a soul is also very helpful for a child with questions. Sad yet necessary film. Beautifully acted by everyone in the cast. Especially the actor who played young Ben, who was confused but very brave in his fight.

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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Heart-breaking, 22 September 2005
9/10
Author: Mel J from Dundee, Scotland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The first time I watched this film, I must have been about nine or ten and even at that age, I sobbed my heart out. To this day, it remains the saddest film I've ever seen.

The film revolves around eight-year-old Ben Madison, a haemophiliac who contracted AIDS from an infected blood transfusion. As Ben bravely copes with all that his devastating illness forces upon him, his parents are fighting two battles. They have to struggle to accept the fact their young son was terminally ill yet remain strong enough to prepare him for his own death but they are also fighting the ignorance of how AIDS was perceived in the Eighties.

'Go Toward the Light' has many emotive scenes: notably, Ben's funeral where his mother recounts how her son's life may have been short but he had made his mark on the world, when Ben's father explains to his three young sons about what happens to the soul after death, and the final scene where Ben dies in his parents' arms. What makes this film unique is that it's not all depressing and, by depicting happier scenes, we feel closer to Ben and his family. We shared their joy when Ben is able to come home for his new brother's birth and when the Madisons' newborn son was haemophiliac-free. We get a sense of how close the family is by the large role the grandparents play in Ben's life (his grandfather poignantly made Ben's coffin) and the love Ben feels for his family, especially his brothers (one bittersweet moment is when his younger brother says he was visited by a ghostly Ben in the hours before Ben's death).

For a TV film, not only was the script excellent but so were the actors. Young Joshua Harris must have been a talented child actor in his time given his affecting performance as Ben while Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas were perfect as the parents, depicting their grief, strength and love for their son and his plight.

I highly recommend this to not only people seeking a good gut-wrenching drama (as there is nothing more gut-wrenching than watching this film and knowing this was a true story that happened to a real little boy and his family) but also for older children and teenagers seeking a more meaningful view of AIDS and its consequences.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Re: Go Towards The Light......., 1 December 2005
10/10
Author: jlbm2004 from United States

This is far and away one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen without question. Linda Hamilton gives one of the most touching and poignant performances of her career; in fact, the entire cast is outstanding!!!! I recently ordered the DVD, and received it yesterday, Nov. 30th, and have already watched it several times; it is a movie I could never tire of. It should serve as an anthem for all parents of seriously ill children no matter the nature of the illness, and a guideline of how to cope and accept. Bravo to all who were a part of it!!!!! This movie is truly a gift!!!!! This is a must see movie for all parents; no, for all families, because it has such a precious and loving message to share with the audience. I first became acquainted with this movie on Movie Plex on True Story Saturday several years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. I LOVE IT!!!!

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Touching even in the second watch..., 13 November 1999
8/10
Author: Marco Alan Rotta (misteryus@yahoo.com) from Blumenau (SC), Brazil

It's been more that 7 months since I've watched it for the first time and posted a comment in IMDb. Today I've had the oppotunity to watch "Go Toward The Light" again and the feeling it brought me weren't much different than the first time. Death is always something hard to deal with, and the way this movie shows it, we notice the way a fearful fact can interact with all the happiness and joy in our lives... It makes you feel like you're dying too... very sad, compeling, amazing...

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A Touching Story, 20 March 1999
8/10
Author: Marco Alan Rotta (misteryus@yahoo.com) from Blumenau (SC), Brazil

Watch this move and don't compare it somehow to "The Cure", by Peter Horton is impossible, once the backbones are too seemed.

But this one is from 1988, and the story of a family with a little boy with AIDS can really touch your heart. A boy that got his death sentence and is aware of that, and two parents that can deal with that. Two parent that have been there in the boy's first steps and first words now have to be there in his first and only death.

The suffering and the living of this family "are" the story, and the lesson we can take from them are wide and simple at the same time.

A must see...

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
So sad, 19 November 2005
7/10
Author: Dave-286 from Belgium

Children dying ... Hollywood has produced tearjerkers, depressing and uplifting versions of the story, naive ones, and this movie contains a bit of all of that. But I'm not saying this in a negative way ... the movie tries to do its best to tell the story in 90 minutes, and there will be few who don't feel coming up a tear or two while watching. It's definitely a "Hollywood TV movie", and it does have the look and feel of one. It's also a movie from the 80's, and that starts showing. But the message remains a powerful one : kids die too, and saying goodbye is painful. Aids can kill, and still scares people away. Force can be found in the medical world, in religion, and most importantly in one's own family.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Hemophilia and Aids, 9 May 2006
8/10
Author: jess-steed from United States

I saw this movie many times as a child, my mom had recorded it on TV. It is about a family with 3 children, all boys with hemophilia. The oldest gets AIDS from the medicine he takes to help his blood clot. Back before 1985, the medicine was derived from pooled human blood, unscreened for diseases like HIV or HepC. Imagine my surprise to deliver my first child in 2002 and find him diagnosed with hemophilia, which wasn't inherited from my parents. This movie was all the information I had about hemophilia and it was so sad. Luckily, my son's life is nothing like that of the Ben in the movie. Yet, it is a good reminder of the pain the hemophilia community endured because of poor medical treatment. I'd like to find a way to get a copy of this movie.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Very touching and sad story, 14 February 2006
8/10
Author: johnmtracy from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw this movie back in high school at age 16 and there was not a dry eye in the classroom at the end of the movie when Ben died of AIDS complications, and if I remember correctly, it was a true story. The most touching scene to me was when their fourth child was born and Ben, who was the oldest of the four boys, including the newborn, got to see him before he died. The found out that their newest son did not have hemophilia, where the blood does not clot if someone with this gets a cut. He can bleed to death if it is not treated with platelet transfusions. Ben and the other two sons did have hemophilia, and it was from a platelet transfusion that Ben got AIDS.

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Sad movie, 12 August 2008
8/10
Author: Born_New_Yorker from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a very sad movie about a family dealing with a vicious killer. It is even sadder when the victim is a child. Ben struggles with this disease along with struggling to maintain his human dignity. Ben finally comes to grips with condition. It is hard to see his body deteriorate. This is sad documentation of the tragedy of AIDS. This cruel killer does not care who its victim is or how old. This is a good film that shows the strength of the human spirit during such extreme tragedy.

Spoiler. alert:

One high point was is 9th birthday when Ben was surrounded by friends and family who loved him

The saddest part ,in which I will never forget, was when Ben was in his mother's lap and his body violently jolted forward struggling to maintain life at the precise moment his heart stopped beating. Ben took in one last gasping breath and died in his mother's arms. As she held the lifeless body of her son she told him that she loved him.

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