May 3, 2009: And the Band Played On
And the Band Played On is a 1993 HBO made-for-cable movie which portrays the early years of the struggle to get on top of the AIDS epidemic in the face of minimal funding, difficulty with scientific proofs, and homophobia within governmental administrations. Primarily focused on the situation in the USA, it does tie in with “competing” research in Europe as prominent scientists race to be the first to create a test for AIDS.
15+ years after this movie was made, and 25+ years after the AIDS epidemic first took hold, it’s hard to go back and look at the struggles simply to get people to acknowledge the existence of the disease. The scientific pursuit of the day was just to create a test to tell whether or not people were infected, which is almost quaint considering the advanced drugs available today to keep the disease under control, but at the same time devastating as we still struggle in the search for a cure.
I have seen this film a few times through the years and have always found it engrossing, if maybe oversimplified in the way HBO movies commonly are. It seems like we’re just skimming the surface, reminiscent of Barbarians at the Gate, and makes me want to read the source material and further writings. It’s maybe a bit overly “cinematic” with an opening sequence to establish the motivation of one of the main characters (played by Matthew Modine), with emotional ties back to this sequence later in the film. Still, it’s great viewing through the heart of the movie, as the compelling story unfolds, with just a bit of dragging in the final 1/4 of the runtime. Modine doesn’t really do it for me as a lead, but Glenne Headly and Charles Martin Smith round out the core team and bring it together.
Early HBO effort still stands up.
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