Life can be so cruel and scary sometimes. Every now and then I find myself thinking "What would I do if that happened to me?" After September 11th I wondered what would I do if I were on one of those planes or in the building. What would I do if I lost a loved one in the attacks? I have wondered what I would do if I lost my father to cancer or some other illness. After watching the movies "And the Band Played On" and "Kids" I thought about what it would be like to find out you had a deadly disease and I wondered how I would go on with my life. Unfortunately, millions of people have AIDS and have to wake up every morning knowing there is still no cure. The two movies I watched were similar in some ways but very different in others. .
The first movie I chose to analyze was "And the Band Played On." This movie reminded me of chapter eleven in "The Coming Plague" because it focuses on how the AIDS virus came into focus in not only the United States, but the entire world. The movie showed the fear and confusion of the doctors and scientists when they could not figure out what they had one their hands. The movie was a real-life drama about the tragic, time-consuming battles among government agencies, gay groups and scientists that slowed down the discovery of, and research on, the AIDS virus. In the movie, Bill Kraus, a leader for the gay population is dying. Not one doctor can pinpoint what is killing him. All anyone knows is that some epidemic is attacking homosexual men. But rather than get down to serious experimentation and study, the Center for Disease Control stops any effort to prove that the disease is transmitted through the blood. To make things worse French and American scientists argue about who should get credit for discovering the virus. And to top things off, the gay community, sensitive about criticism of their lifestyle, refuses to admit that their own actions could make a difference in the spread of AIDS.