AND THE BAND PLAYED ON
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: HBO gives us the most important film of
the year and also one of the most compelling. This is a
detective story, a story of politics and sex, and has a
terrific script and some very moving performances. It is
unlikely you will find a more intelligent film this year.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4)
When Stanley Kramer made JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, he reportedly had only a modest budget. And yet the film had a cast that can best be described as "star-studded." Actors who usually got high billing were willing to take tiny roles and were willing to be paid very modest salaries because the film had a political message. It told the story of the trial of the Nazis who had committed crimes against humanity in the Holocaust and telling that story was so important that actors put aside self-interest to be part of the project. In AND THE BAND PLAYED ON you see a lot of well-known actors in very tiny roles. And films made for HBO generally do not have huge budgets. This film has itself become something of an event and actors want to be part of the statement it makes regardless of what they can be paid and what billing they can be given.
AND THE BAND PLAYED ON would be an enthralling film even if it were pure fiction, which unfortunately it is not. It is the story of AIDS from 1976 before the first real breakout and continuing the story for about the next decade. It is the story of a disaster; it is the story of politics; it is a detective story; it is a story about prejudice; it is about courage and heroism and vanity; it's a horror story. The cliche is that it would make a great Hollywood film, but in reality Hollywood is making no more films like JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG and it takes someone like HBO with its captive audience to make a film like this. (Incidentally, HBO made last year's DEAD AHEAD, which has some resemblance to this film. DEAD AHEAD was not nearly as solid a film as AND THE BAND PLAYED ON and I considered it one of the ten best films I saw last year. This would have to be one classic year for movies for AND THE BAND PLAYED ON not to make this year's top ten list.)
The film basically follows one doctor, Don Francis (played by Matthew Modine) from the very puzzling outbreak--people dying from diseases that usually strike only cats or sheep. Francis as part of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), joins a small team with incredibly insufficient funding slowly assembling the facts about this new disease. And facts they get, but they are facts that a lot of people do not want to hear. And in some cases facts are not available and suppositions must do. So a political element is added. And this is a hard-hitting film that uses the names of famous people, often not in a very positive light.
Of bad touches, there are very few. Glenne Headly does a reasonable job as Dr. Mary Guinan on the CDC team. She is a talented actress but I strongly suspect the real Mary Guinan would not have her Hollywood beauty. They did not feel the need to put in stunningly handsome men in major roles- --unless it is Alan Alda as the self-aggrandizing Dr. Robert Gallo--but there is still the perception here that the audience needs to have a pretty face. That is the only serious aspect in which the filmmakers have underrated the audience. With that exception I commend Roger Spottiswoode for the direction and Arnold Schulman for an intelligent screenplay based on the book by Randy Shilts.
A reviewer always has a dilemma when a bad film is made in a good cause. Do you rate the film or the cause? Thank goodness HBO has made such a good film in this particular cause. I give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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