And the Band Played On

I read this book in high school in the late 80's just as it was released. The book was excellent and gave a great educational lesson on HIV and AIDS. The movie was just as good. I was really touched at the end when "The last song" by Elton John was playing. The movie gave a great time-line of the virus.

It is so terrifying to think AIDS has actually been around since probably 1959 when a blood sample from a man from the Congo had died of a mysterious illness, and tests run on the blood sample today showed he did indeed have AIDS. The movie was very touching, this whole topic leaves a lump in my throat. I was 13 when AIDS had started making the news and in 1985 or 1986 my dad had a blood transfusion. We spend months worrying if he had contracted HIV. Thank god he got clean blood and he dodged a bullet, unlike the 25,000 people in the 70 and 80's who received tainted blood.

I got teary eyed when an HIV+ guy in the movie says "This is not a political issue. This is a health issue. This is not a gay issue. This is a human issue. And I do not intend to be defeated by it. I came here today in the hope that my epitaph would not read that I died of red tape."

The predictions were accurate. The scientists predicted there would be 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV by the turn of the century and that number has proved to be pretty much dead on, literally.

HBO was beginning to choose projects other networks were afraid to touch. And the Band Played On is one of their all time top ten. The actors who participated in this film were only paid scale, and not a lot of money was used, but the message is the strongest. I viewed this on its premiere and couldn't sleep afterward. I view it more these days since I've had many friends die of "red tape" of AIDS.

According to this film based in Randy's book, what bothers me the most was the opportunities that existed by several people to catch this disease at various stages and it just wasn't done. Sure the government played its part, but so did commerce, so did vanity and so did the need for humans to be sexual beings.

Since the film I've read about the deaths of many as well as experienced deaths myself. One thing that stands out is "Patient Zero". The family of this gentleman has fought long and hard for that stigma to be erased. As the character says in the film: "If I got it, then someone gave it to me". I do understand terms that mark things as "the beginning" of the identified problem but with this film you will know there was a beginning BEFORE THAT beginning. Where it lies is still a mystery.

On the other hand if America could have shared information with other countries and paid closer attention we could have fought this is a world problem before it got to the point of where it did. But America was too busy allocating more money to military defense than to the medical defense.

America had discoverable AIDS cases as far back as the 1950's, but it didn't reach total epidemic status until the late 1970's early 1980's. This film brings that information out. It also brings out the information that this disease, although concentrated in the gay community, had no specific target, anyone could/would get it. The people in my life were not all homosexual who contracted the disease but a few were just receivers of blood transfusions. At the time they received the blood, the test was not developed for screening. Just like the film points out, they too (family, friends, associates) suffered.

There is so much to grab in this film, one or two viewings isn't enough. One or two pointed fingers is not the answer. It is equally as sad that almost 10 years later, I am writing this review and the band is still playing. It was my prayer that this would not be so.

American doctors from the underfunded Center for Disease Control scramble to figure out the origin of--and the causes behind--the alarming rate of homosexual male deaths in the early 1980s. As the fatal strain of pneumonia and hepatitis B cases begin appearing, politicos in Reagan-era D. C. veto the mysterious disease as non-newsworthy; meanwhile, members of the gay community are not shown to be radically adept at helping their own cause, labeling the early cases as products of the Gay Cancer. Adaptation of Randy Shilts' frightening, groundbreaking book has an all-star cast but impresses mainly with its handling of the packed narrative, particularly when detailing the CDC's battles in coming up with an inexpensive way of filtering out contaminated blood from the National Blood Supply. Making a movie from the source material was seemingly an impossible undertaking, and yet HBO Films and co-producer Aaron Spelling manage to lay all Shilts' information out adroitly and adeptly. Some of the character interaction is awkwardly interjected, but most of the principal players do very good work with their technical roles. Alan Alda positively revels in the opportunity to play sniveling medical scientist Dr. Robert Gallo, who felt usurped when French scientists initially gained prestige for isolating the virus; as Dr. Mary Guinan, Glenne Headly does some of the best work of her career (while interviewing a sexually promiscuous airline steward, one of the earliest men to fall prey to the disease, Headly is remarkably natural and charming); and Saul Rubinek as Dr. Curran, who initiates the investigation and helps sort out all the jargon, is in masterful form. Some of the high-profile cameos stick out as artifices--such as Richard Gere's bit as a stricken choreographer--though it is commendable to see these marquee names taking part in the project. "Band" isn't compact--it isn't a quick-fix wallow or a time-filler--instead, it's a serious, frustrating, angry movie with no easy answers...and that's as it should be.

Much has been made about the "good guys" and "bad guys" portrayed in "And The Band Played On". And with good reason. I can't help wonder what personal agendas are being followed when a prominent 'real-life' scientist like Dr. Robert Gallo (Alan Alda) is portrayed in such a shallow way. But simultaneously, the filmmakers coyly hide the fact from us that Richard Gere's choreographer is "A Chorus Line" creator Michael Bennett. They withhold that information like "The Simpsons" hide which state Springfield is in. With a wink of an eye.

While these imperfections in the film can be distracting, they are also quite trivial. What many overlook is that "And The Band Plays On" is first...and foremost...a story of DENIAL.

Throughout the first act, there is a reluctance to accept the seriousness of "GRID" ("Gay Related Immune Deficiency"). Once there is no escaping the growing horror, the film accurately describes how all parties (The C-D-C, Bill Krause, gay groups, Jerry Falwell, blood banks, Gallo, The Reagan Administration, etc.) react to preserve their own best interests. And while those special interests clash on how to proceed next, thousands of helpless people keep dying. (There's your tie-in to the Titanic-inspired title).

In the spirit of Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper, Matthew Modine is best-suited to playing an 'everyman'. Modine's 'everyman' in this film (Dr. Don Francis)understands the growing, deadly consequences of H-I-V, but has his own ghosts to exorcise (an Ebola plague victim who grabs his wrist, covering it in blood). While Modine's character is the voice of reason, he is not immune from reacting irrationally to this plague. It is only at the end of the film, as he comforts the dying Bill Krause, that Francis begins to overcome his own fears.

The message of this film is simple: We must be "pro-active" in addressing our problems. For if we wait for a "reactive" response, the resulting panic and confusion will only make things worse. In that respect,"And The Band Plays On" is one of the most important films to be made during the 1990s. For even with it's minor distractions, inaccuracies and agendas -- it truly is "MUST SEE T-V".

This is a HBO movie about the first few years of the AIDS epidemic in America. Dr. Don Francis (Matthew Modine) is an immunologist with experience with WHO in Africa. He joins the CDC to investigate the new disease. The gay community in San Francisco led by Bill Kraus (Ian McKellen) is divided about the mysterious deaths and the fear of the new Reagan administration. Dr. Robert Gallo (Alan Alda) is the arrogant American virologist who discovers the first human retrovirus in competition with his French counterpart to lay claim and credit for the discovery.

This is a big vast complicated story. The beauty of this movie is its ability to maintain the narrative. It is a compelling watch despite the wide ranging story and the variety of characters. It is really a horror thriller at its core with AIDS as the bogeyman. The cast is deep and talented. When Gallo enters the picture, this movie transforms into a personality clash. There are many outstanding performances including Alan Alda, Saul Rubinek and the easily dismissed Matthew Modine. It would be a mistake to forget about Modine who must embody the frustration of the audience. This is a well made understandable movie of a complicated issue.