And the Band played on
Paige Vanasen
Dr. Thatcher
9/16/13
PH 131, MON, 4pm
“And The Band Played On”
The film, “And The Band Played On,” is based on the discovery of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. The film focuses on a set of doctors who are trying to discover this mysterious disease that has been killing off people, slowly and suddenly. It was very interesting watching these medical professionals work so hard and do so much research on one certain disease. Some of them did not get a long and did not have the same views on the disease. For example, two of the doctors, Dr. Gallo and Dr. Francis did not see eye-to-eye and argued several times. Along with these professionals trying to discover the disease there was controversy with the political aspect as well. It was terrifying for them to let the public know what was going on especially when they were not entirely sure what the disease actually was, so they did not want to mislead the public. The public funding was cheap and when they did let the public in on what they had found they were not accepting of it. After watching the film, to my understanding, Dr. Francis was the role character. A lot of the attention and focus was on him. He was indeed a smart man and went about his research very carefully. I enjoyed his character. With little money or none at all, his theory of the new disease was that a sexually transmitted virus caused AIDS. His competition, Dr. Gallo, cuts off his assistance after he learns that Dr. Francis has shared experimental information with the French. I could definitely tell throughout the movie that some doctors have big egos and are straight up rude to one another. Some worked well together and as a team, but it was not always smooth sailing. In my opinion, the movie was sad, depressing and yet thrilling. It pisses me off that there was not a lot of funding for the doctors to figure out a cure to the disease. Fist off, the doctors are the professionals and the ones that have a sense of
Dr. Thatcher
9/16/13
PH 131, MON, 4pm
“And The Band Played On”
The film, “And The Band Played On,” is based on the discovery of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. The film focuses on a set of doctors who are trying to discover this mysterious disease that has been killing off people, slowly and suddenly. It was very interesting watching these medical professionals work so hard and do so much research on one certain disease. Some of them did not get a long and did not have the same views on the disease. For example, two of the doctors, Dr. Gallo and Dr. Francis did not see eye-to-eye and argued several times. Along with these professionals trying to discover the disease there was controversy with the political aspect as well. It was terrifying for them to let the public know what was going on especially when they were not entirely sure what the disease actually was, so they did not want to mislead the public. The public funding was cheap and when they did let the public in on what they had found they were not accepting of it. After watching the film, to my understanding, Dr. Francis was the role character. A lot of the attention and focus was on him. He was indeed a smart man and went about his research very carefully. I enjoyed his character. With little money or none at all, his theory of the new disease was that a sexually transmitted virus caused AIDS. His competition, Dr. Gallo, cuts off his assistance after he learns that Dr. Francis has shared experimental information with the French. I could definitely tell throughout the movie that some doctors have big egos and are straight up rude to one another. Some worked well together and as a team, but it was not always smooth sailing. In my opinion, the movie was sad, depressing and yet thrilling. It pisses me off that there was not a lot of funding for the doctors to figure out a cure to the disease. Fist off, the doctors are the professionals and the ones that have a sense of