"And the Band Played on" is the greatest AIDS epic ever created. Others will claim this title should go to "Angels in America", but in my opinion AiA (being a gay fantasia on national themes) tackles far more issues to make it an "AIDS movie". "And the Band Played on" is a critical and historical dissection of AIDS, what it is, and how it came to be a pandemic. This film has been criticized both for its being dated and being too dispassionate. Well of course it's dated! It's a dramatized documentary. The movie came out in 1993 and the most important scenes take place in 1982 and 1983. I am part of the younger generation (i.e. under thirty) and we are already too young to remember the events of AIDS' emergence. It's important for us especially to watch this movie to remember the events of our childhood. As for it being dispassionate I adamantly disagree. If you can watch the 1983 decision (by this point in history there have been over 1000 deaths and over 2000 cases) where the national blood banks decided it wasn't worth the expense to test the nation's blood supply for AIDS, you are taking too much of history for granted.