And the Band Played On

**And the Band Played On** is a 1993 American television drama film directed by Roger Spottiswoode which first premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival and aired on the HBO network on September 11, 1993.

It is based on Randy Shilts' 1987 non-fiction book, "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic."

## Plot

The film tells the story about the history of the AIDS epidemic in America, and how the medical, political & social establishments have dealt with the crisis.

## Cast

* Matthew Modine as Dr. Don Francis
* Alan Alda as Dr. Robert Gallo
* Ian McKellen as Bill Kraus
* Lily Tomlin as Dr. Selma Dritz
* Richard Gere as The Choreographer
* Glenne Headly as Dr. Mary Guinan
* Jeffrey Nordling as Gaëtan Dugas
* Charles Martin Smith as Harold Jaffe
* Donal Logue as Bobbi Campbell
* B.D. Wong as Kico Govantes

## Production

Filming for "And the Band Played On" took place in San Francisco, California.

Television networks such as NBC and ABC were considered to make a miniseries based on the book in the late '80s, but the networks turned it down because they were unable to structure it as a 2 night, 4-hour miniseries.

The film eventually aired on NBC in 1994 with a parental discretion warning due to its sensitive subject matter.

## Critical Reception

Tony Scott of Variety stated: *"If there are lapses, director [Roger] Spottiswoode's engrossing, powerful work still accomplishes its mission: Shilts's book, with all its shock, sorrow and anger, has been transferred decisively to the screen."*

John O'Connor of The New York Times agreed that the film adaptation of the book *"adds up to tough and uncommonly courageous television. Excessive tinkering has left the pacing of the film sluggish in spots, but the story is never less than compelling."*

Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave "And the Band Played On" a B+ grade, calling it an *"intriguing, sometimes awkward, always earnest combination of docudrama, medical melodrama, and mystery story."*

Tucker also wrote: *"The stars lend warmth to a movie necessarily preoccupied with cold research and politics, and they lend prestige: The movie must be important, since actors of this stature agreed to appear. The result of the stars' generosity, however, works against the movie by halting the flow of the drama every time a familiar face pops up on screen. The emotions and agony involved in this subject give Band an irresistible power, yet the movie's rhythm is choppy and the dialogue frequently stiff and clichéd. The best compliment one can pay this TV movie is to say that unlike so many fact-based films, it does not exploit or diminish the tragedy of its subject."*

In a review from Time Out New York, the writing team said: *"So keen were the makers of this adaptation of Randy Shilts's best-seller to bombard us with the facts and figures of the history of AIDS that they forgot to offer a properly dramatic human framework to make us care fully about the characters." The review also says that the multiple issues the film attempts to cover "make for a disjointed, clichéd narrative."*

Richard Zoglin of Time magazine said: *"[Randy] Shilts's prodigiously researched 600-page book has been boiled down to a fact-filled, dramatically coherent, occasionally moving 2 hours and 20 minutes. At a time when most made-for-TV movies have gone tabloid crazy, here is a rare one that tackles a big subject, raises the right issues, fights the good fight."*