Film And The Band Played On By Roger Spottiswoode Essay

There was also a woman who was an IV drug user who had contracted AIDS. This helped to dispel the myth that it was only a gay disease, but was transported through the blood; therefore our blood supply was at risk. The CDC in Atlanta met in 1983 and motioned to change the name from GRID to AIDS which was Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. However, because of expense the blood banks refused to change testing procedures. Eventually, the blood banks finally agree to test but many people were affected with AIDS virus before that finally took place. (Spelling, Vincent & Spottiswoode, 1993).

1. What are the main themes, politically and socially, that are portrayed in the film?

The movie, And the Band Played On, discusses the origin of the AIDS virus and how it spontaneously spread across the world. It used the Ebola disease to foreshadow the forth coming of another serious disease. The world was not prepared to handle such a contagious plague. Doctors around the world assumed that the first cases of the HIV virus to be just an abnormality of a certain disease, their carelessness of this matter was the start to the spread of this disease. Throughout this movie, it illustrates different points, such as the beginning of HIV, the misconceptions it gave, and the panic it aroused amongst doctors and the common people.

One of the themes that stand out the most in the film is the struggle to overcome adversity and push through problems in one’s life that could otherwise get in the way from achieving goals. In the film, many

Before 1978 there was no stored blood anywhere in the U.S. that tested positive for HIV or the KS virus. There were no cases of AIDS and no cases of "gay cancer" in young men. The Hepatitis B vaccine experimentation began in new

Semen containing white blood cells infected with HIV comes into contact with tissue in the rectum and vagina. The virus can then enter the bloodstream of the host through perforations in the tissue surface. The risk of this happening is greatest in anal intercourse, either between two men or a man and a woman.” HIV is spread through a direct exchange of blood or blood products. This mode of transmission is most frequent among IV drug users who share injection needles. It includes, as well, hemophiliacs and other persons who receive blood transfusions, and fetuses of mothers who carry the AIDS virus.” AIDS has sparked considerable interest and controversy since the start of the epidemic. However, in trying to identify where AIDS originated, there is a danger that people may try and use the debate to attribute blame for the disease to particular groups of individuals or certain lifestyles. When the AIDS epidemic became offical in June 1981, it was widely considered exclusively a "gay disease” and this was because many people were confused and uneducated about this new, foreign disease that faced and ravaged our society as a whole. There is no doubt that many people coming from all walks of life were subject to discrimination when other people discovered that they were suffering as victims taken by the disease. The cultural and social response to AIDS portrayed in the film Philadelphia (1993) covered all of these aspects and was

Q.1. What do you think is the main messages this movie is trying to deliver?

It is often cited that the HIV/Aids epidemic that hit the United States in the 1980’s (though there is some evidence that it started even before then), came into light due to several high profile incidents and the eventual loss of several thousand lives. Many believe that due to

In the Radio Lab the Authors illustrates how HIV is spreading in United States and how the starting point begins as Patient Zero. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich along with Carl Zimmer and David Quammen discuss how in 1981 a mysterious syndrome it became in a pandemic among homosexual people in important cities such as Los Angeles Ney York and San Francisco. Young men were dying in inexplicable conditions that the CDC had to intervene with a several researches, surveys and studies about those cases. During the research noticed that one man were most related with more cases, this person was Gaetan Dugas, a Canadian young men, who travel to US. As he knew he was going to die, he stared to spread the disease for something he called a “gay cancer”.

In the movie, there are many recurring themes such as, the never-ending supply of drummers, or the belief the main characters have of their extreme intelligence, when in fact they are not terribly bright. The movie also draws of real life parallels like in the case of John Lennon and

2) What are some of the themes that are central to the film? How have they been communicated?

There were many issues and concepts that were arisen with this film. What seemed to be the major theme that predominated throughout the film was that being older does not mean that life ends. There are different issues that are dealt with when aging, but

The connection of AIDS and the hepatitis B experiments was broken in the mid 80s by government officials. However, it is fact that this “gay plague” started right after the hepatitis B experiments. Alan Cantwell states that, “…the experiments permanently damaged the health of the gay community, and led to continuing spread of HIV into the "general population.”

contest. Parallels can be drawn to many of the other themes of the film from this

One of the main themes is war and tension as viewed from Marjane’s point of view. Throughout the movie, there is some scenes of violence such as air raids and killings. There is also the theme of conflict between Western and Islamic ideology. All the themes mentioned goes back to the class discussion about the different cultural differences between countries such as the United States and the Muslim world. Another theme that is relevant is cultural shock and immigration where Marjane lived in Austria before returning to Iran and experience a lot of prejudice and culture shock between the two countries.