Produced around the same time as "Philadelphia" yet with entirely different framing, "And the Band Played On" takes the medical thriller route; the gay community here are victims of some nebulous viral beast, as well-meaning scientists go against a cruelly indifferent bureaucracy. Actually nailing down the cause of AIDS was an unnecessarily uphill battle . . . But then again, where's the profit in all of this testing? It's all a sick joke.
I enjoyed this movie; it was far more thought-provoking than I'd expected (I dunno, with a cast that's full of a-listers like this, I tend to be way of awards-baiting) and there's a journalistic intent that keeps you invested while these doctors track down patient zero.
If nothing else, it is a stark reminder of this nation's wildly different attitudes toward the gay community in the early '80s. Between the abysmal messaging of the "gay plague" and the criminally underfunded CDC, this period was a black mark on the Morning in American sentiment.
I enjoyed this movie; it was far more thought-provoking than I'd expected (I dunno, with a cast that's full of a-listers like this, I tend to be way of awards-baiting) and there's a journalistic intent that keeps you invested while these doctors track down patient zero.
If nothing else, it is a stark reminder of this nation's wildly different attitudes toward the gay community in the early '80s. Between the abysmal messaging of the "gay plague" and the criminally underfunded CDC, this period was a black mark on the Morning in American sentiment.