10 Best Films That Deal With The AIDS Epidemic

The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s was one of the most horrifying and tragic events in modern history. After being completely ignored by the Regan administration, the already marginalized gay community was all but endangered by a nationwide lack of understanding.

As always, The Arts fearlessly tackled the epidemic through books, plays, and films. It took a while for studios to get over their skittishness of dealing with such a powerful subject, but Hollywood and the indie film community would go on to produce some excellent AIDS-related films. Steve Buscemi began his career by playing one of the first film characters with the virus and Tom Hanks changed his career by playing a man with AIDS. Here are 10 of the best films to examine the AIDS crisis.

10 An Early Frost – Directed By John Erman (1985)

The first television film to bring the AIDS epidemic to the small screen, John Erman’s frank and honest film may have been “soap opera-esque” in its style, but it became a groundbreaking door-opener and made television history.

Aidan Quinn played a gay son who contracts AIDS and the film follows how his parents (Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands) deal with it. The power of the story lies in the fact that Quinn must come out to his family while also telling them he has AIDS. The film was a multiple Emmy winner and opened many viewer’s closed minds to the subject.

9 It’s My Party – Directed By Randal Kleiser (1996)

Randal Kleiser’s intimate, funny, and heartbreaking tale of a man who is nearing the end of his battle with AIDS received much critical praise and was a small box office success on the indie circuit.

Eric Roberts played the lead role of a man who is losing his battle to AIDS and decides to throw a goodbye party with all of his friends. Critics rightfully praised Roberts’ sad portrayal and the film was nominated for “Outstanding Limited Release Film” at the 1997 GLAAD awards.

8 BPM (Beats Per Minute) – Directed By Robin Campillo (2017)

An emotionally, politically, and sexually charged film, BPM (Beats Per Minute) follows members of the Paris branch of the AIDS activism group ACT UP in the early 1990s.

Critics were extremely kind to the film due to the filmmaker’s getting their point across of how, for the victims of AIDS, the personal is also political and the political is always personal.

7 Philadelphia – Directed by Jonathan Demme (1993)

Jonathan Demme’s’ Philadelphia made a big splash with critics, audiences, and The Oscars. A powerful indictment of bigotry toward the gay communities, Tom Hanks starred as a successful lawyer who was unlawfully fired from his firm due to prejudice regarding his homosexuality. Denzel Washington plays the homophobic lawyer who takes his case.

The film was nominated for five Oscars, winning three for Best Screenplay (Ron Nyswaner), Best Original Song (Bruce Springsteen), and Best Actor for Tom Hanks. This was the first big studio mainstream film to deal with the AIDS crisis.

6 Yesterday – Directed By Darrel Roodt (2004)

Set in a Zulu village in Africa, Yesterday sidesteps melodrama to tell the tragic story of a woman who learns she has AIDS but strives to live long enough to see her young daughter go to school.

Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2005 Oscars, Roodt’s film tells a powerful story with grace and respect. Leleti Khumalo received high praise for her powerfully moving lead performance and the film brought light to the struggle of the Sub-Saharan Africa region, which holds an extremely high percentage of the world’s AIDS cases.

5 We Were Here – Directed By David Weissman & Bill Weber (2011)

Weissman and Weber’s film is an emotional oral history in which its subjects speak about their time in San Fransico during the beginning years of the AIDS crisis, becoming one of the best documentaries on the subject.

The film was praised for its power in not shying away from the horrifying realities of a country that was not prepared to handle a crisis such as this one and for how the filmmakers forced the viewer to see the effects of the virus on these men.

4 Angels In America – Directed By Mike Nichols (2003)

Considered one of the defining works that tackle the AIDS epidemic, Angels in America was a massive HBO production that won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes.

Mike Nichols adapted Tony Kushner’s play about the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s with a massive cast that included Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, and Meryl Streep. The miniseries would become a critical and ratings smash for HBO.

3 How To Survive A Plague – Directed By David France (2012)

How to Survive a Plague is David France’s powerful documentary about two groups (ACT UP and TAG) who, through tireless activism, helped the gay community learn how to live longer and healthier with AIDS.

France’s film charts the beginning of the AIDS crisis through to the activism of the two groups mentioned previously. Nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar in 2013, the film stands as a towering document of awareness and of the fight against AIDS.

2 Longtime Companion – Directed By Norman Rene (1989)

Longtime Companion is an Independent Spirit Award-winning film about how AIDS decimates a group of friends.

Using honest and non-stereotypical characterizations, Rene’s film is widely admired for being one of the most moving, honest, and human portraits of gay men during the onset of AIDS.

1 And The Band Played On – Directed By Roger Spottiswoode (1993)

Roger Spottiswoode’s HBO adaptation of Randy Shilt’s novel of the same name, And the Band Played On tells the story of the first discovery of the AIDS virus and the fight against prejudice and the political arguments that sidelined any immediate response, which would lead to millions of deaths.

Matthew Modine leads a strong cast that included Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, Richard Gere, and more in a film that is both intimate and epic in scale and tone. Spottiswoode’s film brought the realities of the politician’s refusal to move forward on research with hampered any chances of a cure. The film was a multiple Emmy Award winner and one of the most lauded HBO films of its decade.