And the Band Played On (film)

And the Band Played On (film)

And the Band Played On is a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts, and is noteworthy for featuring both a vast historical scope, as well as an exceptionally sprawling cast.

The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival on September 2, 1993, before being broadcast on HBO on September 11, 1993. It later was released in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark, New Zealand, and Australia. The HBO movie was later aired on NBC in 1994. NBC (as well as ABC) were some of the networks considered to make a miniseries based on the book in the late 1980s, but the networks turned it down because they could not find a way to structure it as a two-night, four-hour miniseries. In 1994, NBC finally aired the movie with a parental discretion warning due to its sensitive subject matter.

Plot

In a prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Don Francis from the World Health Organization arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in Zaire and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate will haunt him when he becomes involved with HIV/AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1981, Francis became aware of a growing number of deaths among gay men in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco due to a rare lung condition, Pneumocystis Pneumonia, which only afflicts people with weakened immune systems. He moves to Atlanta, where CDC Administrator Dr. James Curran asks him to investigate this new immune disorder in-depth. Because of the Reagan Administration's clampdown on public spending, he is forced to work with little money, limited space, and outdated equipment. He clashes with numerous members of the medical community (many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas).

Francis comes into contact with the gay community after he and his colleagues found strong evidence that the disease is spread through sex. Some gay men support him, such as San Francisco activist Bill Kraus, while others express anger at what they see as unwanted interference in their lives, especially in his attempts to close the local gay bathhouses. Kraus works hard to try to save the gay community from the virus to the point that it costs Kraus his own relationship with his boyfriend Kico Govantes.

Francis and other CDC staff are further astonished that representatives of the blood industry are unwilling to do anything to try to curb the epidemic because of potential financial losses. Additionally, while Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus, he finds his efforts are stymied due to competition between French scientists from the Pasteur Institute and American scientists, particularly Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Institutes of Health, who becomes enraged when he finds out that Francis collaborated with the French scientists. These researchers squabble over who should receive credit for discovering the virus and for the development of a blood test. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly.

One day in 1984, while exercising at a local gym, Kraus notices a spot on his ankle and worries that it might be Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-defining illness. Kraus visits his doctor and is devastated upon learning that he has AIDS. Govantes returns to Kraus after finding out he is sick. After the discovery of the AIDS virus is announced, Francis submits a plan for prevention and eventual cure despite Curran telling him that it will never be approved. The CDC rejected the proposal for being too expensive and transferred Francis to San Francisco.

In November 1985, Kraus and Govantes are walking in the San Francisco candlelight parade when Kraus suddenly starts coughing and becomes too weak to stand. He is taken to a local hospital, where he experiences difficulty with his vision and can only speak gibberish often. Francis arrives, and within a few minutes, the symptoms pass. Francis laments that they could have stopped the virus from spreading but fears it might be too late. Kraus remarks that he used to be afraid of dying but now is afraid for those who live. Kraus passed away in January 1986.

Francis stayed at the CDC until 1992, when he left to work on creating an AIDS vaccine. The film ends with a playing of Elton John's "The Last Song" showing a photo and video montage of a number of famous people who are victims of HIV/AIDS.