And the Band Played On (1993) * * * *

Directed by:  Roger Spottiswoode

Starring:  Matthew Modine, Ian McKellen, Richard Gere, Lily Tomlin, Richard Masur,Glenne Headly, Saul Rubinek, Alan Alda, Steve Martin, Swoosie Kurtz, David Dukes, B.D. Wong

And the Band Played On does more than simply document the early years of the AIDS epidemic.    It also mercilessly recreates the fear, misinformation, frustration, and anger of the doctors, patients, families, the public, and the gay community in response to a disease of which diagnosis was a death sentence.    It is emotionally overwhelming and powerful.    At first, the disease was known as "gay cancer" because it afflicted mostly homosexuals.     Funding to research and fight the disease was almost non-existent.     President Ronald Reagan did not say the word AIDS in public until 1985, five to seven years after the first cases were diagnosed.      Doctors from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) learned quickly it was a blood borne disease passed mainly through sexual contact.      Working through the bureaucratic red tape to finance their research was a nightmare.     Was this because it was mostly considered a "gay" disease?     You can surmise that, even if it wasn't outwardly admitted, and you can understand why sufferers felt hopeless and alone.

The movie, based on a non-fiction book by San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts (who himself died from AIDS-related illness in 1994), shows us early cases in which patients showed up in hospitals with rare and horrifying afflictions such as Kaposi's Sarcoma.     Doctors were baffled and had no way of treating the patients.     The CDC formed a belief that a retrovirus was eating up white blood cells that fight off infections, leaving the patient open to a "whole horror show of diseases", as one doctor puts it.    Doctors were sent to interview the patients.    They discovered many had sex with other men who then had sex with other men with the illness.    They found a link, but not much willingness to fund the research.

The team of doctors is led by the outspoken Dr. Don Francis (Modine), who was haunted by his own experiences in 1970s Africa in which hundreds of villagers were dying from a mysterious illness.    It was not AIDS, but it caused a helpless feeling in Dr. Francis.    He was there to help them and could not.    This is what drives him to beg and plead for funding while tirelessly searching for the virus causing the illnesses.    He frequently clashes with the CDC chairman Dr. Jim Curran (Rubinek) over lack of money, outdated equipment, and having few resources.    Curran is not unsympathetic to Francis' cause, but he knows all too well fighting for such things is an uphill battle.     Especially when the afflicted are homosexuals.  

When the research confirms disease transmission through gay sex, the CDC is stunned to find that the gay community is not willing to follow its recommendations to close city bath houses (where homosexual men met to have anonymous sex).    They fearfully see these attempted closures as a violation of their freedoms.     They fear society is trying to push them back into the closet.     Add this to an already overflowing powder keg ready to explode.

The number of cases and deaths rises as the politics and bureaucracy continue on.      It took the death of Rock Hudson and the case of Indiana teen Ryan White, a hemophiliac, to finally get the ball rolling in a meaningful way.     These occurred in 1985, which is of little comfort to the loved ones of those who already died from the disease.     There is also the matter of the French discovery of a potential retrovirus, which American scientist Dr. Robert Gallo (Alda) wants to take credit for.       Dr. Francis tells Gallo, "you've turned this disease into an international pissing contest."   

We watch the extent of bureaucracy, homophobia, and fear has on the fight against AIDS.     A rational person would think all should be primarily concerned about wiping it out, but fear is the enemy of rationalism.     A particularly telling scene involves the CDC presenting its case to a national medical conference to test the blood supply for the virus.     A blood industry board member callously asks, "You want us to spend 100 million dollars on testing because of a handful of transfusion fatalities and eight dead hemophiliacs."     An outraged Francis replies, "How many dead hemophiliacs do you need?"     

And the Band Played On manages to juggle a lot of subplots and characters without losing its way.    It remains passionate, compelling, and fascinating all the way through.     The final montage, which is accompanied by Elton John's AIDS anthem "The Last Song", is particularly emotional.    We fully understand the toll the disease took on the world.     I can't imagine the pain and helplessness not only the doctors felt trying to figure out the disease and treat it, but of the sufferers who were dying from a disease that just recently was given a name.     And the Band Played on reminds us of this.     It does what great films do:  it observes, it angers, it challenges our perceptions, it involves us, and it makes us empathize.