friends. Harry is going through a divorce and Sally
through a breakup, and they find comfort in what is,
for both of them, their first honest friendship with
a member of the opposite sex. Ultimately, however,
they sleep together, after which they fight bitterly.
It is not until some months pass that Harry real-
izes that he is in love with Sally, and they become a
couple.
When Harr y Met Sally.. .raises the question of
whether men and women can ever really be platonic
friends—a question that particularly preoccupied
young adults during the 1980’s. Harry argues “no”
from the beginning, then agrees with Sally that it is
possible, only to discover that sex and love replace
the friendship, proving his original theory correct:
Men and women cannot be friends. The supporting
actors, Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher, also play im-
portant roles both in creating the comedy of the film
and in providing an example of a successful mar-
riage.
Impact Many of the scenes in the picture have be-
come iconic, including one in which Sally pretends
to be having an orgasm loudly in a diner, only to have
a nearby patron say to her waiter, “I’ll have what she’s
having.” The film featured vocal standards, such as
“It Had to Be You” and “Our Love Is Here to Stay,”
performed by various artists, but the sound track al-
bum was recorded entirely by Harry Connick, Jr.,
and rose high on theBillboardcharts.
Further Reading
Krutnik, Frank. “Love Lies: Romantic Fabrication in
Contemporary Romantic Comedy.” InFatal At-
tractions: Rescripting Romance in Contemporar y Liter-
ature and Film, edited by Lynne Pearse and Gina
Wisker. London: Pluto Press, 1998.
Pio, Ramón. “Gender and Genre Conventions in
When Harr y Met Sally.. .”InGender, I-Deology: Es-
says on Theor y, Fiction, and Film, edited by Chantal
Cornut-Gentille D’Arcy and José Angel García
Landa. Atlanta: Rodopi, 1996.
Lily Neilan Corwin
See also Academy Awards; Comedians; Film in the
United States; Jewish Americans; Music.
White, Ryan
Identification AIDS patient and activist
Born December 6, 1971; Kokomo, Indiana
Died April 8, 1990; Indianapolis, Indiana
White, a teenage hemophiliac infected with HIV through a
tainted blood transfusion, drew international attention to
the treatment of AIDS patients at the height of widespread
alarm over the new disease.
On December 17, 1984, Ryan White, then thirteen,
was notified by doctors that he had contracted hu-
man immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through trans-
fusion of a contaminated blood-clotting agent, Fac-
tor VIII, administered during a partial lung removal
procedure as part of a treatment for his pneumo-
nia. He was told that he had six months to live. At the
time, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
was widely associated with careless habits of so-calledThe Eighties in America White, Ryan 1043
Ryan White prepares for a televised interview in Rome, Italy, in
February, 1986.(AP/Wide World Photos)