Clevercell Very disappointing...

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

moonspinner55 American doctors from the under-funded Center for Disease Control scramble to figure out the origin of--and the causes behind--the alarming rate of homosexual male deaths in the early 1980s; as a fatal strain of pneumonia and hepatitis B cases begin appearing, as Reagan-era Washington apparently vetoes the mysterious disease as non-newsworthy, and as the gay community (shown as not one radically adept at helping their own cause) label the early cases as products of the Gay Cancer, the CDC battles with the Blood Industry in coming up with an inexpensive way of filtering out contaminated blood. Adaptation of Randy Shilts' frightening, groundbreaking book was seemingly an impossible undertaking, yet HBO Films and co-producer Aaron Spelling manage to lay all Shilts' information out adroitly and adeptly, with some of the character interaction awkwardly interjected but with most of the principal players doing very well with technical roles. Alan Alda positively revels in the opportunity to play sniveling medical scientist Dr. Robert Gallo, who felt usurped when French scientists initially gained prestige for isolating the virus; as Dr. Mary Guinan, Glenne Headly does some of the best work of her career (while interviewing a sexually promiscuous airline steward, one of the earliest men to fall prey to the disease, Headly is remarkably natural and charming); and Saul Rubinek as Dr. Curran, who initiates the investigation and helps sort out all the jargon, is in masterful form. Some of the high-profile cameos aren't shaped for much satisfaction--they stick out as artifices--such as Richard Gere's bit as a stricken choreographer (it is commendable that Gere is here, yet his movie star aura looms larger than his part). The film isn't compact--it isn't a quick-fix wallow or a time-filler--it is a serious, frustrating, angry movie with no easy answers. And that's as it should be.

mattrochman Very interesting documentary/film about the explosion of the AIDS epidemic across America.It looks at the scientific side with getting itself bogged down in the detail. It looks at the human side without getting too sentimental. It looks at how competitive some scientists can be without over-blowing the issue or painting every doctor/scientist with the same brush.But one thing it did overcook was its hatred of Regan and the attempt (in part) to shift blame to him for the epidemic. Unfortunately, there was a dramatic presumption that if a liberal government had been in place, then more would have been done earlier. At the same time, it correctly points out that AIDS has a long incubation period - meaning that people had been transmitting HIV to each other for years before patients even turned up with symptoms. By its very nature, AIDS will not show up until it's almost at micro-epidemic levels. Only a government with psychic powers could have done something sooner to prevent the "first wave" of the AIDS virus spreading throughout the gay community.Ah ha - some of you might say - but increases in funding at the early stages could have prevented it from becoming worse! Well that's not really true either. Dr Gallow was given the preliminary data and samples. He had top rank scientists and resources at his disposal.... and yet he was unable to isolate and identify the virus. That's pretty remarkable considering he was the father of retroviruses. Now let's look at numbers. The movie frequently updated us with the "Butcher's Bill" : how many suspected cases and how many deaths. At times when the movie suggested Regan should have taken more action and endless funding to the CDC (an instrumentality chronically underfunded throughout it's history and under all kinds of administrations), the deaths were still only in the hundreds, it hadn't even been identified as virus and the transmission models were not backed up by science whatsoever. So if you think that miracles would have occurred under a different administration, think again. Look at where we're at now. No cure or vaccine has been successfully developed, it is one of the fastest growing infectious diseeases in the world, despite the fact there is now an endless stream of money, education and awareness out there these days. It appeared all too often that the film makers and Shiltz had a political axe to grind and took comfort in retrospect. Little would they realise that the eventual epidemic that transpired would have occurred under any government; and would have most certainly occurred in more or less the same way under a Democrat administration.Then again, I won't let that take the gloss off a very human and natural film. The production qualities were not high standard, but they didn't need to be and it is very much essential viewing for anyone who wants to know more about the origins of the AIDS epidemic in America.

Lee Eisenberg 1993 saw two movies about AIDS. The famous one was "Philadelphia", but "And the Band Played On" is also important, focusing on the virus spreading in the '80's and how the Reagan administration acted like it didn't exist. If the movie has any problem, it's the number and range of big names. Matthew Modine as Dr. Don Francis is the nominal star, but also appearing are Alan Alda, Phil Collins, Bud Cort, Richard Gere, Glenne Headly, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, and Lily Tomlin, to name a few.Maybe they felt that they had to make this movie do to the fact that gays were portrayed so negatively in movies for so many years (see "The Celluloid Closet"). All in all, a very good movie. The way that Reagan denied AIDS mirrors how Bush denies global warming.

Theo Robertson This is a movie based upon the late Randy Shilts book AND THE BAND PLAYED ON , a book that I have never read but know has been critically acclaimed and praised for its readability since it is very similar in structure to a detective novel as scientists try to track down and identify a virus that is killing gay men . I also know the book also received some criticism because it was written by a HIV+ homosexual who seemed to have a political axe to grind . If that's the case ( Again I confess to never reading the book ) then all I can say is that this is a very well adapted story Certainly the story works best when the scientists are on the case . If the story about the nationalistic rivalries and plain old fashioned egotism ( A Nobel prize to the first person to identify this illness is a certainty here ) of the scientific community had been the main focus this would have been superb drama but ironically because of a need to make the drama more human we're introduced to far too many characters so that the story soon descends into mawkish melodrama and yes I did notice something of an agenda in here Take the bath house sequences for example where gay men congregate for casual sex and a character points out to Dr Harold Jaffe ( In reality it's being pointed out to a mainstream audience ) about how a hetrosexual equivalent would be somewhere a man would be able to meet lots of beautiful women for meaningless but great sex . This equivalent doesn't actually exist in reality though and we a mainstream audience are being asked to sympathise with homosexual promiscuity . In many ways it's a form of emotional blackmail , if we can't empathise with this lifestyle that marks us down as " homophobic " when homophobia doesn't come into it - Promiscuity is the problem here . Later the owner of the bath house Eddie Papasano speaks about how he's not going to shut his premises down because he'll lose money . Oh boy you can see where this is heading , greed is good for the pocket and bad for people who choose to have sex with complete strangers . Are we to take it the greed of Eddie Papasano and the people who use his bath house are comparable to the blood bank executives who scared of losing their profits don't screen blood donations for HIV+ Of course not , but this TVM makes out anyone wants to make money in whatever form is a cold hearted villain and anyone committing promiscuity is a hard done by victim . It should be pointed out that Phil Collins is laughable in the role of Papasano Phil Collins isn't the only inapprotiate cameo in this television movie , the whole TVM drowns in them , it's even more distracting than THE LONGEST DAY with big name or familiar face actor appearing in the shortest scenes: Alan Alda , Richard Gere , Anjelica Houston , Steve Martin , Ian Mckellan and Saul Rubinek to name but some all make appearances which seems more like a parade of Hollywood liberals and makes you realise that you're watching a TVM . Like the story the familiar faces should have only been confined to the scientists working on the case rather have appear in pointless cameos AND THE BAND PLAYED ON ends with a poignant epilogue made even more poignant when one of those featured is Elisabeth Glaser who died on December the 3rd 1994 , the day after this TVM received its British network premier