Rent, the Dissent a.k.a. Bohemia is Dead/ Sell Out or Die

(note: you can read Sara's review of Rent here)

I saw the play of Rent back in high school, and again when I was in college. I stood in line for the lottery. I sat front row. I had a grand old time. My favorite songs were "One Song Glory," "La Vie Boheme" and "Out Tonight." I had the cast recording. I don't remember crying at all.
Fast forward to five years later. I am no longer quite as young or quite as idealistic. AIDS is now even more officially a huge world problem. The east village is no longer all that shitty. The movie comes out. I go see it. I leave not happy, not optimistic, not enlightened, but crying and generally depressed and wondering two things: What is the moral of this movie, and why the hell is it so popular?
Now, trust me, I get the whole "rock opera" type thing. Tommy, Hair, Hedwig, whatever. I get the idea. But, dude. The characters. They're all either rich and spoiled or dying of AIDS. Really? Yeah, and I'll prove it. Mark? Spoiled. Roger? Dying. Maureen? Spoiled. Angel? Dying. Joanne? Rich. Collins? Dying. Benny? Rich. Mimi? Dying. Did I miss anyone? Nope, I don't think so.
So, you're telling me that this movie, and the play, somehow appeals rich straight people who don't have AIDS? I don't get it. The movie is really depressing. You either sell out or you die. Literally. How is that something that we find uplifting? Yeah, sure, it's all about friendship and love and whatever. But, really, it's about how much life can suck, and finding some good in it. Except, of course, you're either selling out or dying, which kind of negates the good.
A friend of mine suggested that this was a way for people to assuage their liberal guilt. I don't really understand that approach. I might understand it, except that the movie is just so damn depressing. Once we got to the former end of the first act ("La Vie Boheme") it became overwhelmingly, oppressively tear-jerking. Hey, if I wanted to cry at a movie, I would have gone to see a romantic comedy, ok? I wanted to go live in a romanticized version of New York for a few hours, not watch people starve and freeze and get high (in a bad way) and strip (also in a bad way) and lose their ideals and die. Sometimes in that order. Sometimes not.
As much as it pains me to quote Benny, the bad guy of the movie, "this is Calcutta. Bohemia is dead." Even the film's attempt to romanticize the "bohemian" way of life fails miserably. Who really chooses to live in New York in winter without heat? People who can easily get out of it, like Mark with his rich parents. The people who can't get out of it, I suspect, would much rather not be poor and freezing and, oh yeah, dying of AIDS. There's nothing romantic about a slow and painful death.
So, yeah, this was a good movie. I guess. It did its job. It's a way for people to watch the play often and easily in their living rooms. It brought it to all those people who wanted to see the play but never got to. It made me cry (not like that's an accomplishment). But I can't really imagine purposefully wanting to repeatedly sit through a film that depresses me and tells me that my options are to sell out or die. I can get that at school for free.