As a Catholic, I think the "message" of the movie is Christian-to-the-max: the primacy of love. The main characters are seven in number. All of them are young people living "la vie bohème" in New York City's East Village in 1990. They have no money or economic support, but they do have each other for life support. Some of them are non-heterosexual, and even some of the heterosexual ones have AIDS. They use drugs. They don't observe the niceties of "decent moral behavior." And, even so, they ought to serve as an inspiration to all of us. Pushed to the brink, they will make every sacrifice for their comrades.
Their solidarity comes not from any teaching of religion but from what might be called the inner urging of their "love instinct." Not that that instinct shapes their every action. They can be as fallible, as misguided, and even as selfish as the rest of us schlepps. They have fallings out and makings up. They get jealous. They get angry. They get depressed. They get spiritually out of whack.
Yet when the chips are down, they are right there — one for all, all for one — every time.
I've been thinking about this ever since I watched the movie for the third time, all told, a few days ago. I'm coming to believe that the primacy of love is the main message of my religion, and indeed of all religion. I'm also coming to realize how difficult a message it is to uphold, 24/7. Even when I wish I were feeling love for this person or that, I'm usually not. As a feeling, love is ephemeral. When it does put in an occasional appearance in the soul, the feeling is the greatest on earth. We desperately wish we could hold onto it permanently. But we never can. How strange it is that the thing we need the most in life is so damned elusive!
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