Rating: 
Summary: An eye-opener!
Review: Having gotten poliomyelitis in 1953, I see comparisons between the two diseases. People with AIDS suffered prejudice and lack of information of how the disease is passed just like those who got polio. There was isolation and fear with both. Polio killed as did AIDS, but Polio was not necessarily a death sentence as was AIDS (at least at first). Polio children were often pitied,especially if they were crippled. But, much money was raised from the public sector by the National Foundation to pay for braces, operations, etc. The story of AIDS is as tragic as the disease itself. It is a gripping story that everyone should know. This movie shows clearly how it happened and why money was hard to get. It certainly kept my attention throughout. All the actors did a wonderful job with their respective roles. Even Alan Alda was convincing as Dr. Gallo, the researcher. (Alda was a polio survivor.) Lily Tomlin was wonderful as was Matthew Modine, and all the rest. My advise is not to watch this movie on the same day as you see Tom Hanks' "Philadelphia" (another great movie). At least for me, I can only take so much injustice in one day. I now want to read the book by Randy Shilts.
Rating:
Summary: Pulling on your emotions
Review: 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.)
Rating:
Summary: What about region 4 in Australia?
Review: I have just ordered this DVD movie thru Amazon. Unfortunately, in Australia, this movie is not available to purchase for private sale in either a DVD or VHS format. This is not the only movie that is unavailable down under, but was the first on my list to purchase thru Amazon. That says it all.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Wonderful, historic movie about the discovery of the AIDS virus and how the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) in Atlanta, Georgia turned fiction into fact and turned a little known epidemic called GRIDS (gay-related immune deficiency syndrome) into AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). It is extremely interesting and combines stories of characters who discover they have these symptoms of AIDS and what they go through. The movie also shows how America, as a people, begin to discover this new disease and how to handle it. The movie is informative and scientitfic, explaining how it was actually discovered through research and focus groups. It's poignant and moving, but most importantly it is our history.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite movies of all time
Review: I must have seen this movie at least three or four times, and it always gets to me. I will not go into the story line here, as that has been done in detail by other reviewers. Instead, I would just like to say that this is one of those great movies which, in my view, has not received as much attention as it should have. It is not only a suspenseful and gripping account of the early AIDS epidemic, it is also a lesson in how science can be at once extraordinary, as well as petty and ferociously competitive. Based in fact, this movie also serves as an important historical document. Seeing this movie will not lift your spirits, and it most certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of humanity, but it does leave you feeling a little wiser, and more educated about the beginnings of a disease which continues to greatly affect people and societies all over the planet. It tells a story which needs to be told, and it does it well.
Rating:
Summary: AndThe Band Played On
Review: I watched the movie in it's entirety. This showed how the blood industry and the politicians and the owners of the Bath Houses
were willing to care more about the money they would lose testing
the blood supply and closing the Bathhouses than saving lives and
fighting for the right thing. It shows the selfishness of Dr.Gallo and the misconduct that was involved. They didn't even
test the donors before letting them donate blood. Thus, people
who recieved transfusions got sick and died as a result of an
infected donor. The end tribute where all of the victims of aids
were remembered along with a touching musical tribute from Elton
John, and also they showed the AIDS quilt, commemorating those
who lost the battle of AIDS.
Rating:
Summary: A sorrowful tune
Review: In the midst of the growing crisis of the AIDS epidemic, one journalist who witnessed the development and destruction wrought by this disease firsthand put together a regular series of columns chronicling what he felt was important for history not to forget. Appearing locally in San Francisco (perhaps ground zero for the epidemic, or certainly one of the first major sites to suffer) and then nationally in the likes of 'Rolling Stone', Randy Shilts' commentary grew into the text 'And the Band Played On', which follows the history of the AIDS crisis from many perspectives. In reducing this massive tome to a reasonable-length feature, HBO pictures and Aaron Spelling (yes, Spelling, best known for Beverly Hills: 90210 and the like) had to devise a way of making it interesting and compelling for the small screen (this was a made-for-television film). They opted to follow the career of Dr. Don Francis, an epidemiologist with the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, and his team as they fought to uncover the mystery of the disease, and then had to fight to get public and official recognition of the problem. Played by Matthew Modine, Francis gives a real sense of the frustration and confusion that faced the medical establishment in the early days of the disease. Coming at the time of a great conservative political revival on both sides of the Atlantic, a disease that seemed to affect undesirables, moral degenerates particularly (or so the popular sentiment ran), was unlikely to get any public assistance. Ian McKellan (who had yet to come out publicly as a gay man) played the political activist Bill Krause, who realised that he was fighting a difficult uphill battle during the Reagan era, when even his own Democratic party didn't want to embrace the gay community. Perhaps the most interesting portrayal in the production is that of Alan Alda, who plays the enigmatic and controversial figure of Dr. Robert Gallo, discoverer of the first human retro-virus (which had, at that time, no disease to attach to it). Gallo's back-and-forth ego battles with the French researchers at the Pasteur Institute and with the CDC (and Dr. Francis in particular) may have caused delays and difficulties in finding adequate ways of identifying infections and virus-positive persons. The book goes into much more detail than the film about the 'which-virus-is-it?' controversy (HIV was not the first virus to which AIDS was attached). Gallo took exception to the way he was portrayed in the original film; in the updated video release there is addenda that addresses some of the issues. The chilling decisions of hospital boards and from the troubled gay community, making decisions unwise in retrospect (and perhaps known to be unwise if politically untenable at the time) lend an air of concern about the way in which disease in general is handled in modern society. The ideal of public health concern is shown to be largely at the mercy of business and political decisions. The equally-chilling realisation that this was a disease with a potentially 100% mortality rate is an important aspect. It almost falls into the realm of dark humour that, once there were laboratory allocations and some small budgetary allowance that it was thought that this disease would be identified, contained, and possibly cured within a matter of a few years, if not months. Now entering the third decade of the epidemic, one wonders at the misplaced optimism, and worries about what other, worse diseases are lurking around the world. This made-for-television film is remarkable because of the number of big names that turned out for relatively small parts - Lily Tomlin, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Steve Martin - many actors and actresses lent their support to this project as a public service, accepting only minimum union fees if any payment at all. The premiere was in Washington, D.C. before an audience which included members of Congress and government and industry leaders. The film ends with a montage of video clips and stills of prominent people who had died of AIDS - the number of people is staggering, made apparent by the modern phenomenon of the AID quilt, a grass-roots project designed to keep the memories of each victim alive. This is the Butcher's Bill, a term coined by Nelson as he fought Napoleon, who asked what the daily death toll was. HBO films also produced an Academy Award winning documentary, 'Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt', which I highly recommend as a supplement to this film. While AIDS is no longer the automatic, immediate death sentence it once was, it is still a serious disease that has a high mortality rate, and is enormously expensive to treat and combat. But, the medical community is beginning to learn something. I hope you will take the time to listen to the story, which is an important one, put in compelling format.
Rating:
Summary: PHENOMENAL & MOVING
Review: In 1978, the first cases of a mysterious viral pneumonia began appearing, and people started dying. No reasonable cause of death could be found. By 1980, gay men in the United States started dying of pneumonia and skin cancer, and a trend started to emerge. No one wanted to fund research to save a few gay bathhouse patrons, and the CDC was forced to investigate the disease with a skeleton crew, minimal funding, and quietly. Their hard work uncovered the possibility that this was a sexually transmitted disease, but no one wanted to close the bathhouses. They discovered it was transmitted through the blood supply as well, but no one wanted to spend the money to screen blood. Ronald Reagan was still refusing to acknowledge the disease publicly, and no one wanted to believe that AIDS was a problem. It wasn't until women and children started dying that the public finally started to take notice, and notice they did. Less than 10 years after the first cases were isolated in the United States, over a million would be afflicted with the disease. This is the story of those first years, from the first stunning revelation that there was a common link to those early cases to the isolation of the virus and the development of a screening test for it. It's about the politicians that didn't want to risk political suicide by getting involved with a "gay" disease, about the doctors and health professionals who worked night and day for years to find the cause, and most importantly it's about the people who's lives were cut short by this killer. What might sound dry and plotless in print is actually an engrossing, fascinating, emotional movie. The entire story moves along well, and never seems to drag too long at any point. What could have been a confusing film is made very easy for the layperson to understand. It doesn't pull any punches, and few people will walk away without feeling some sense of rage at how many lives were needlessly taken away in their prime because of ignorance, red tape, prejudice and money. The cast in this movie is out of this world, and there's not a single weak performance in the bunch. It's one of those movies where, each time a new character comes onscreen, you say "Hey, that's so-and-so!". Matthew Modine plays a CDC doctor who wears his heart on his sleeve, part of the CDC team that searched inexhaustibly for the contagious factor in AIDS, or as it was called at the time, GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency). Other members of the team include Richard Masur and Glenne Headley, who spend their own money to fly all over the country, interviewing victims and trying to trace the causes of the disease. Sir Ian McKellan gives an expectedly stirring performance, as a gay man who spends years battling beaurocratic red tape to get politicians to fund AIDS research, only to find out that he himself has the disease. B.D. Wong is great as his long-time companion and best friend. Lily Tomlin is one of the highlights of the movie, as a back-breaking, shut-up-and-get-it-done-now type. Steve Martin gives one of his stronger performances as the brother of a high-society closet homosexual. Richard Gere, who is sort of hit-and-miss in his movie roles, is moving and believeable as a Broadway choreographer afflicted with AIDS. Alan Alda is an absolute treat, playing the self-important Dr. Callo, the American doctor who tried to claim sole discovery of the virus that causes AIDS as well as the test to detect it. Part of the movie revolves around his refusal to acknowledge or work with the French scientists who truly did discover the virus, and the urge to run up to the TV and slap Alan Alda is almost irresistable! There are at least 20 more actors and actresses in this movie that you'll recognize instantly, it's that great of a cast. I can't say enough about this DVD! I originally saw it back in the 90s, when it first aired on HBO, and it stuck with me through all of these years. I finally found it here on Amazon on DVD, and just watched it: I was afraid that I might have been remembering it as better than it was, but it didn't disappoint me in the least! This film will keep you on the edge of your seat, staring at the screen in rage, sadness and awe from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: The Band Is Still Playing
Review: This film, in my opinion, is a fantastic telling of the behind the scenes of the discovery and the eventual research of the AIDS disease and virus. It is based upon the book of the same name by Randy Shilts, and it is wonderfully acted and a superb telling of a true and heart-wrenching story. I reccommend this to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required viewing
Review: The chilling history of the bureaucratic red tape that impeded progress in the early days of fighting the spread of the AIDS virus. This is another of HBO's excellent movies based upon real events, like "Citizen X". Matthew Modine heads an all-star cast. This movie will make you angry and depressed at the same time, but that shouldn't steer you away from watching it. The story is probably as important as any other story facing the world today.
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