Hacker Cinema
And the Band Played On
1993 · Film · 140 min
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
4 positive1 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
And The Band Played On, the whole 1993 film (2h20min) is on YouTube. It's based on a 1987 book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KthBMpST7Q
Both are really incredible movies, and I'd also highly recommend them. "How To Survive A Plague" is pretty great too (it even features everyone's favorite NIH official, Anthony Fauci!).
One thing worth being aware of with "And The Band Played On": it's quite old, and science advanced a lot after the book it's based on was written, so it's sometimes factually inaccurate (Gaetan Dugas didn't personally cause the pandemic, and the incubation period is longer than they thought then). It's not a work of history or a documentary, but it makes for fascinating viewing precisely because it was made so close to the events that the story it tells is not neat and polished with the benefit of decades of hindsight and narrative shaping. It's chaotic and emotional and raw and authentic and, inevitably, sometimes wrong about stuff that wasn't known then.
If you have time I would recommend two movies that touches deeply upon this topic. They are 'Philadelphia'[1] which garnered a 'Best Actor' Oscar for Tom Hanks and 'And the band played on'[2] starring Mathew Modine.
'Philadelphia' a fictional movie that touches on the social stigma associated with HIV and 'And the band played on' captures the politics of why it was ignored by Reagan and his supporters for so long and the sad politics and scientific infighting in the chase for a cure.
Both are incredible movies.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107818/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106273/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
And the band played on. Great film that tells the story
Since I am under 30 y/o I never really understood what AIDS meant to the generation that dealt with it head on. To me it was background noise of red ribbons, charity walks, and celebrity tributes on television. When I went to college one of my mentors (an immunology researcher) gave me a copy of And the Band Played On (http://fave.co/1LMbq5A) and it opened my eyes to the real physical, emotional, and political history of AIDS in the United States. I recently saw the movie adaptation and it was decent but the book is just incredible. It's one of those history books that reads like a thrilling work of fiction.