And the band played on
March 7th 2008 05:10
I'm really looking forward to getting out more to watch movies at the cinema now that my baby can be left with my parents. The last film I saw at the cinema was Pirates of the Carribean on opening weekend. The cinema was so crowded and overheated I started getting heart palpitations and the baby started kicking uncontrollably. I never made it to the end of that movie.
In the mean time I've been watching DVDs that have been gathering dust at the back of my DVD shelf. The latest being the TV movie And the band played on - the film based on the book which chronicles the spread of the HIV virus.
I never realised a film about a disease which is based on a non-fiction book could be so interesting. I have been a bit skeptical about movies based on non-fiction books ever since I watched Fast Food Nation, but that could have more to do with Ethan Hawke playing Ethan Hawke.
And the band played on stars Matthew Modine, of Crazy for you (it was called Vision Quest in America) fame. Modine was earmarked to play Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun, but he turned it down apparently because of his pacifist beliefs. For another Perth linked piece of trivia, Modine was in the film Wind, which was about the America's Cup, co-starring Jennifer Grey post rhinoplasty.
But I digress.
And the band played on explores the spread of HIV in the US through the gay community. Known as "gay cancer", the film supports the popular theory that a air steward was responsible for bringing the virus to America. It also explores the spread of HIV in France through the Haitian community, and the highly politicised nature of the disease. It questions whether or not the disease could have been contained if it was not linked to the gay community.
I never thought a movie about a virus could be so rivetting. Watching the movie in the age of HIV awareness, HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs did not make it less frightening. After all there is still no cure for HIV.
Another really interesting part in the movie was the dramatisation of early incidences of what could have been isolated cases if HIV in the western world.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
This is the one that should have gone to the big screen and Philadelphia should have just been a movie of the week.