As a TV movie about a highly sensitive subject, overall it's a moving experience.

And the Band Played On adds its own snare-drum resonance to the AIDS catastrophe, beating elements of Randy Shilts' journalism into a passionate, incisive condemnation of the government's public health policy regarding this epidemic.

I enjoyed seeing A-list actors in the sort of small supporting role they would never otherwise accept. And they got the film made.

Featuring a star studded A-list cast, the film falls somewhere between medical procedural and contagion film with a rare villainous performance by Alan Alda