And The Band Played On

I have said time and again that movies based on the whole AIDS epidemic are hard hitting and can sometimes be difficult to watch. This film had been on my watchlist for a long time and recently when I saw the documentary 'Patient 0'; I was reminded of it again and decided on watch on this Sunday afternoon. I cannot emphasize on how important this film and how this is a must watch film for all of us, especially considering the COVID pandemic that our world has been dealing with for over a year now. The film, adapted by the book of same name by Randy Shilts, tries to documents everything that transpired from when the first cases were discovered to the social, political and medical impacts of the whole situation in the 80s.

When a few cases of an unknown disease killing gay men is discovered between SF and NY, Don Francis joins DCD in their research to find out details of what's going on. With his experience in the Ebola outbreak, he could be of help, but only slowly will he discover how difficult thetas is going to be with almost no money, zero laboratory facilities and limited space. We all know how US government had turned a complete blind eye to the whole thing under Reagan administration. He deals not just with political jobber jabber but also a lot of members of medical community are not forthcoming in their support. We see how initially tracing is started to find out contact points of the men who got the virus, struggles when it is suspected that it is caused due to sexual activities leading to closure of bathhouses. Push back from gay community of the whole thing since nothing can be improved. We see in details how France and US are in a race to find out what the disease is about, how can you test for the virus etc. For the first time, I also saw how the film focuses not just on the sexual activities between gay men but also the whole blood transfusion. Thing can lead to AIDS. The whole politics and fight that happened to get blood banks to start testing the blood samples was another eye opener. At over 2.5 hours; this film packs a lot and shows. Us how it started and where it ended by 1993, when at least a way was figure out on how to test for the virus with continuing cases of AIDS patients and high number of deaths.

The film does a marvelous job of mixing politic climate with members of medial community doing more than their 100% in trying to find out the truth behind this. Interesting there is no conversation about the origin, because we know that will forever remain a debate, but focus is on how it is spreading, how to test and eventually how it should be controlled. The film has some very interesting cameos and interpreted really well. To be honest, You can't not be touched with watching something like this because guess what, if not for the efforts of all the people so far, we would not have been enjoying almost a carefree life as gay men today. I can't fathom at all the horrors people must have gone through that time and losing their loved ones. For me the most exciting aspect of the film was that instead of focusing on individual patient stories, the film is all about the research of how the disease spreads and what all was done behind the scenes to get us to where we are today. A pretty powerful film, I can't believe this was made in 1993 almost 28 years ago. It also shows the ignorance of people back then and how politics and discrimination against homosexuals stonewalled the immediate discovery of a cure that could have alleviate the newly discovered disease. It was sad to see how the corporations and certain people always putter personal agendas in front of humanity and that was sad. There was so much in this film I had no idea about and I am so glad I decided to spend my afternoon watching this. Thankfully the film focuses of facts rather than exploring the tragedy itself. Yes, some of the dialogues sounded very cliched but they work in the larger scheme of things. The whole gay politician breaking up with his partner because of focus on work is something that as really not needed. 

The sis part of our history, especially as gay men, that we can never forget or ignore. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. This should be a mandatory watch in your queue. (8.5/10)