Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9711 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-05
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 141 minutes

Amazon.com Essential Video
A superior, made-for-cable film, this Home Box Office adaptation of Randy Shilts's chronicle detailing the emergence of AIDS in America and the fight against bureaucracy and society for a cure is a taut, outrageous, and affecting true-life drama. Matthew Modine (Birdy, Married to the Mob) is featured as a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control at the time when the first reports of a disease plaguing the gay community were heard. Modine and his colleagues embark on an investigation that resembles a compelling detective story as they try to track the source of the disease and discover a cure. Their efforts are thwarted by an ambivalent government and a turf war between French physicians and a celebrated American researcher (Alan Alda) who seems to place his own glory above the dead and the dying. Featuring heartfelt performances from a stellar cast including Richard Gere, Glenne Headly, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Saul Rubinek, and Lily Tomlin, this impassioned film stands as an impressive and important document of one of the darkest eras in modern human history, and a tribute to the spirit of those who sought to save lives. --Robert Lane

On the DVD
Animated menus
Chapter selections
Languages
Subtitles
Cast & crew bios

Synopsis
The late journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling book on the burgeoning AIDS crisis was adapted for cable TV by Arnold Schulman. In 1981, researchers begin discerning a mysterious new disease that apparently affects only homosexual males (or so they thought at that time). Working independently, and with marked hostility toward one another, an American and a French research team manage to identify and name the dreaded HIV virus. The long-range effects of AIDS is experienced through the first- and secondhand experiences of several unfortunates, including a choreographer (Richard Gere) whose character is said to be based on Michael Bennett. The all-star cast (most of whom eschewed their usual high salaries) includes Lily Tomlin as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz, Matthew Modine as Centers for Disease Control researcher Don Francis, Alan Alda as NIH official Robert Gallo (who emerges as the villain of the piece), Ian McKellan as gay activist Bill Kraus, and Glenne Headley, Steve Martin and Anjelica Huston in cameo roles. And the Band Played On debuted September 11, 1993, on HBO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

sensational missed oppertunity
A must see movie for anyone interested in Public Health and HIV/AIDS issues. Though, the information in the book by Randy Shilts is more compelling, the movie is accessible to a general audience. And the band played on, tells the story of the emergence of the AIDS pandemic in the United States and Europe. The political and social factors which led to a tragic missed oppertunity to prevent the global impact of AIDS are revealed. Sometimes sensational, especially with the telling of the in accurate "patient zero" story, the movie illuminates the inner workings of the U.S. governments fatally flawed and politically motivated scientific and public health response to AIDS.

A+ for AIDS Awareness and Education, and Its Social History
This movie is a fabulous and highly factual. Somebody wrote areview here and posted from a so-called liberal website (Dean's World) a piece refuting some of the movie's factuality.

"Dean's World" is a website that supports and promotes "AIDS skepticism" and Dr. Bialy's "False HIV/AIDS Hypothesis"(AIDS dissidents question the link between HIV and AIDS, arguing that the former is not necessarily the cause--and certainly not the sole cause--of the latter.) and its pharmaceutical treatment. As well, the spread of AIDs and the amount of infected people is questioned on that website.

Posts such as this show how relevent this movie is today, not just as an historical documentary, but for understanding persistant, apologetic attitudes concerning the terrible treatment that early AIDS patients endured and the ignorance that persists in endangering lives.

"And the Band Played On" is an essential movie for anyone trying to understand our recent social and medical history. It is a moving, and thought-provoking documentary.

And the Band Played Good.
'And the Band Played On' is an excellent film about the true story of the discovery of the AIDS virus from the late 1970s' into the 1980s'. It has an All-Star cast that bring delight to the screen. More interesting than 'Philadelphia'.