And the Band Played On

“Strength. Friendship. Courage. Sometimes that’s all you have.”

Don Francis (Matthew Modine) is a CDC epidemiologist who has spent his career chasing outbreaks, and he recognizes early that a new disease is killing gay men in American cities. Roger Spottiswoode follows him through the early years of the epidemic, as Francis argues with bureaucrats, blood banks and rival researchers like Robert Gallo (Alan Alda). Every month of delay is counted in lives, and few in power are in any hurry.