In 1983, Randy Shilts, a journalist at The San Francisco Chronicle, became the first full-time reporter assigned to cover the AIDS epidemic. The four years he spent on the investigative trail culminated with the publication of And The Band Played On, an exhaustive, complex, multi-arc account of a handful of dedicated researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who, with little funding, equipment or manpower, fought political indifference, prejudice and ignorance in an effort to reign in a medical catastrophe that would soon change the face of the world. Made by HBO for American television but released theatrically in key overseas markets, this much-delayed film adaptation (written by Arnold Shulman) of Shilts' uncompromising, controversial best-seller methodically documents the bureaucratic and moral obstacles that needed to be scaled or circumvented before the world could be alerted to the very real peril the so-called "gay virus" posed. Matthew Modine toplines as Dr. Don Francis, the epidemiologist who tracks the at first mysterious virus from its incubation in Africa in 1976 to its beachhead in the US some five years later. Alan Alda, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Anjelica Houston, Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin are just some of the supporting stars who help Modine drive this impassioned, revelatory call-to-arms.
