And the Band Played On
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Movie Reviews of And the Band Played On
Movie Review: A Surprising, Sensitive, and Engrossing Thriller About the AIDS Crisis
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an unforgettable film, an intelligent and suspenseful story with fantastic ensemble acting, and that shows how a lot of little mistakes, and big egos, bigger ignorance, and lots of bureaucrats, can lead to massive loss of life. And did so here so tragically in the AIDS crisis, in which a small group of scientists and doctors struggled to contain a terrifying new virus in the 1980s.
The fact that the disease was still 'trackable' when it was pinpointed -- as illustrated in this film -- it breaks my heart. I could not have imagined a movie of the book when I read it, but this film has a pulse-pounding and truly suspenseful story as one small team races to contain the spread of the disease, while (heartbreakingly) watching so many lives fall with staggering quickness before the disease. We meet many of these victims briefly, yet they are interesting and instantly memorable people, and it hurts to lose them. We also see how these stunning losses inexorably begin to affect those on the team (there's an especially lovely scene between Glenn Headley and Richard Gere that goes from being charming and slightly flirtatious, to quietly devastating in just a minute or two). Gere is very good here (in a character inspired by "A Chorus Line" creator Michael Bennett).
So many of the facts presented here are hard to believe just a few decades later -- the victims who continued to infect others simply because they could not face their own mortality -- the refusals to close the bathhouses -- the refusals of blood banks to start a screening process that would have protected hemophiliacs from receiving at least 75% of infected blood (because of the expense -- sigh) -- the fact that too few people in government cared (or would even mention the word AIDS) simply because it involved gay men.
Matthew Modine is excellent as the passionate doctor intent on finding a cure, and the superb cast also includes such wonderful actors as Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Patrick Bauchau, Richard Masur, David Dukes, Glenn Headley, Alan Alda (a wonderful and chilling, stupidly egotistical villain), Swoosie Kurtz, Richard Gere, Donal Logue, and many more. I love all the performances here, and the final montage is stunning. I can't imagine anyone not being moved by all those vibrant images of people who are no longer with us.
It's a movie that is surprisingly suspenseful and exciting, and which stays with you for a long time. My favorite line in the film occurs in a quiet scene near the end of the story, in a coffee shop where Matthew Modine breaks down for the first time, in frustration, anger, and sadness, only to be consoled, with surprising kindness, by the boss he fought against for so long: "Sometimes I look at you, in awe and wonder, too."
Movie Review: Pretty Much Spot On In Accuracy - DVD shows pretty much how it was!
Summary: 5 Stars
I really liked this DVD. Hard as it was to watch for all the painful memories it brings flooding back into the forefront of the consciousness. The callous cold hearted indifferent nastiness of the Reagan Administration as those it considered lesser Americans lay in hospitals suffering and dying.
This DVD shows Dr Gallo as a shallow man with a vaccuous heart lacking anything remotely akin to human compassion unless of course the camera's were rolling. The film shows the CDC being headed by political hacks who elevated the collected arts of administrative spin control, reckless indifference to suffering \ death of people it did not like and stonewalling to the stuff of mythic legend.
While the DVD shows the ugliest demons of the human heart laid bare that the whole world might see it also shares the most humane and tender moments of the early days of before HIV / AIDS got those names. The film showed how even in one of america's darkest hours when true presidental leadership was asleep at the switch, the little people those deep inside government did all they could to protect the public health living up to the highest standards for onr called to offer themselves in service to our nation.
The DVD simply told the truth and it is left pretty much to the viewer to make up his or her own mind what they think of those times. There were some moving facts at the end of the DVD all now quite dated. I guess the thing that caught me so totally off guard was the running tally showing the numbers of sick and dying people from the earliest days of the epidemic. It is so sad how the Reagan adminstration so viciously sat on its hands doing nothing while so many died in an epidemic that it might not have stopped but it might have slowed significantly had it only acted with the same fortitude at home that it mustered in Beruit or Libia.
Yes I dwell too much on the sickening aspects of those times because just seeing it again after having lived through it makes me mad. Seeing this DVD just convinces me that had we a real leader in the white house when AIDS HIV GRID Gay Cancer first burst onto the scene things might have not been so grim. But this DVD is so much more than the venom and pain of loss it also highlights human kind at its best. There is much love in this DVD balanced with the grim realities of the day. Back in the day I can not say I was on the front lines, because indeed I was not. I think this movie is a must have for anyone's collection and at its current price it can not be beat. Of course I brought a copy and might buy another for a spare to lend out for teaching purposes. This DVD is pretty accurate HIV history as it should be told.
Movie Review: Battles in the Larger War
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1980, thousands of Americans were under siege by an unknown virus, destined to attack whomever it wished in a vicious, unbelievable way. The response from the government was to ignore it, the response from the primary community it attacked was denial, and the response from the doctors was puzzlement and wonder. This mix led to the deaths of thousands, and eventually millions of people, who were unwittingly victims in this plague that still sweeps the world. "And the Band Played On" marks the early struggles in this monumental epic, and the politics that all too effectively wiped out these victims.
Matthew Modine plays Dr. Don Francis, a virologist who's passion is science and is one of the foremost researchers for AIDS. Intrigued early on with this disease, and unable to answer some of the questions, Francis starts his campaign to discover the source, along with a talented and barely funded crew at the Centers for Disease Control. Because the population it attacked was gay, the Reagan adminstration turned a blind eye to the disease, not wanting to offend it's conservative religious core. And the Band Played On, and more and more people began to die.
Then toss into this mix a gay community recently empowered, afraid of the disease and yet afraid this was another attempt to subvert them. Led by Ian McKellan as Bill Kraus, who struggled against his own community to get them to stop spreading the disease. Yet they turned a blind eye, left the bathhouse open (which were a breeding ground for AIDS), And The Band Played On, and more and more people died.
And then toss into this mix a doctor bent on restoring his shattered reputation and his shattered ego by arguing with the French about discovering this retrovirus. Dr. Gallo, brilliantly played by Alan Alda, put his own needs above those affected from this disease, looking for fame and glory, And the Band Played On.
Taking Randy Shilts' groundbreaking and revolutionary book into a movie format was a challenging and daunting task. The book is thick with characters and politics, and the movie successfully touches on all major areas in the book. However, to get the most complete story, check out the originial source material. The book is still a compelling read so many years later, and if this book doesn't get you outraged, nothing will.
The film ends with an incredible touching tribute to those we lost from AIDS, from the littlest babies to the greatest celebrities, over the haunting song of Elton John's "The Last Song". The end result was our loss of Ryan White ... Rock Hudson ... Bill Kraus ... Amanda Blake ... unspoken millions ... And the Band Plays On ...
Movie Review: Pulling on your emotions
Summary: 5 Stars
This made-for-HBO movie definitely transcends the "disease of the week" genre that it's part of. Based on the book by Randy Shilts, it chronicles the struggle of science vs. politics vs. morality in the early days of the AIDS crisis. Our point of view character is Dr. Don Francis (Matthew Modine), a passionate young scientist with the Centers for Disease Control. He and his colleagues, both at the CDC and France's Pasteur Institute, seem to be the only ones who remember that there are real people dying of this mysterious disease. Dr. Robert Gallo (Alan Alda)is one of the few human "villians" of the piece, more interested in writing himself into the history of the disease than in helping anyone. Two other notable performances are those of Lily Tomlin as the tough, no-nonsense Dr. Selma Dritz) and Ian McKellan as Congressional aide Bill Krause, who as part of San Francisco's gay community, is in the epicenter of the crisis.
Watching this movie, I got very angry. The blood banks, for example, were more worried about money than lives. One of the best scenes in the movie is where Dr. Francis stands up at a meeting and screams at reps from the blood industry, "How many dead hemophiliacs do you need?" before they do something about it. (That was a reenactment of a real outburst, not a fictional event.) An end title tells us that "By the time President Reagan made his first speech on AIDS, 25,000 people had died." Between events like these and Gallo's blatant scientific misconduct, it's hard to avoid being incensed.
The acting is excellent, especially Modine and Alda, who even look a little like the men they're playing. Modine brings an incredible amount of passion and frustration to Dr. Francis. I especially like McKellan's character, an older gay man who is not a stereotype. Several familiar character actors show up as supporting players, and some very famous faces (Steve Martin, Richard Gere, Phil Collins, Swoosie Kurtz, and Anjelica Huston) make cameo appearances.
If you're looking for something light and fluffy, this is not the movie for you. If you want something that will make you think, with some fine acting and a realistic script, this is for you. (Watch this, then go read Shilts' book.)
Movie Review: Moving Inside Story of What Happened Behind the Headlines
Summary: 5 Stars
Those of us who were old enough remember the headlines about AIDS in the 1980's. I remember the confusion about the blood supply, that this was a "gay" disease, that it could be contracted through common household contact, the controversy over safe sex, and when Rock Hudson's diagnosis was announced, and when he died.
The facts about AIDS that we take for granted now - that it is not a "gay disease", that it is a virus, that safe sex can prevent its spread - were not seen as obvious facts in the early and mid 1980's.
"And the Band Played On" is the story behind the headlines, rumors and misinformation of that time.
When I say behind the headlines, I mean the activities most Americans were oblivious to - the small number of health professionals realizing in 1980-1981 that people were dying of seemingly suppressed immune systems; the realization in the gay community that their members were becoming ill; and the search by the CDC to study the disease in terms of who was becoming sick, how the disease progressed, the determination that it was a virus, and plotting its course and victims.
The movie is extremely well-done and well-acted. While much of the book was left out of the movie (i.e., the activities of the gay community in NYC), I think this had to be done so that this could be a movie and not a mini-series.
As with the book, periodically through the movie the "Butcher's Bill" metrics are displayed ... for this date in 1984, so many cases have been diagnosed in the U.S. For the same date, so many people have died in the U.S.
I watched this movie's premier on HBO. Later, when I met my husband, we came across it on HBO and watched it. He was very favorably impressed by the movie, and was struck by the periodic displays of the "Butcher's Bill". He's told his teenage son and daughter about it, we purchased it, and we've all watched it together.
I highly recommend this movie. Even more highly, I recommend the book. It is one of the best works of nonfiction I've read.