Movies that make a difference
”
Living proof
”
starring Harry Connick, Jr., Angie Harmon and Regina King
Movies are mostly made to entertain us, but once in a while a
movie is made with a greater purpose. Director Dan Ireland and
writer Vivienne Radkoff had that greater purpose in mind when they
developed a book by Rober Bazell into the Lifetime movie about a
doctor who refuses to give up on a drug that has saved the lives of
many women.
Movies that make a difference
“Living proof” starring Harry Connick, Jr., Angie Harmon and Regina King
Movies are mostly made to entertain us, but once in a while a movie is made with a greater purpose. Director Dan Ireland and writer Vivienne Radkoff had that greater purpose in mind when they developed a book by Rober Bazell into the Lifetime movie about a doctor who refuses to give up on a drug that has saved the lives of many women.
Living Proof
The movie tells the story of Denny Slamon (Harry Connick, Jr.), a cancer researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles who began work on a drug to treat breast cancer in 1986. At the beginning of the movie, viewers are introduced to several women and it is clear that some of them will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the movie is over.
Slamon knew a third of breast cancer victims did not respond to standard chemotherapy and radiation. In some of those diagnosed with breast cancer, a protein called Herceptin overexpresses and causes the cancer cells to grow rapidly. Slamon’s idea was to create an antibody to the protein that would slow or stop the growth of cancerous cells.
Genentech, a Bay Area pharmeceutical company, offered him backing at first, but pulled funding after several years because they believed Slamon’s procedure was unlikely to work. A friend, Lily Tartikoff (Angie Harmon), offered to raise funds for Slamon so that he could keep his research going. She persuaded the Revlon Foundation to give money to Slamon to the tune of $2.4 million – and they still continue to support breast cancer research with a run/walk and other fundraisers. The drama continues when Genentech staff remind Slamon they hold the patent on the drug so he needs to continue is research under their restrictions.
Though Connick, Jr. is a lackluster actor at best, the women in the movie make it worth watching. The patients profiled include the first woman to receive the experimental drug in the phase one trial, a mother of two small boys, who lives an extra two years after the dosage. Another is Ellie Jackson (Regina King), a Los Angeles fashion designer whose mother died of the disease and who puts herself at arms length in relationships because she is worried she will die soon. Another is Barbara, played by an emotional Bernadette Peters, who exceeds Slamon’s expectations when her cancer disappears after her participation in the phase two and three clinical trials.
The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998, and as Slamon said in the movie it saves the lives of enough women to fill the Rose Bowl each year.
And the Band Played On
In 1993, director Robert Spottiswoode and writer Arnold Schulman undertook a similar task when they developed a book by Randy Shilts into a movie about the AIDS epidemic.
For those of us who came of age in the 1990s, it’s hard to imagine a world in which the disease is unknown – no one knows what causes it, what the symptoms are likely to be, and most importantly, how it is spread – but that is exactly the world featured in “And the Band Played On.”
The movie has a stellar cast of actors playing the doctors, public health workers and men at the center of the crisis. Matthew Modine plays one of the central characters, but the ensemble includes Glenne Headly, Swoosie Kurtz (who also appeared in “Living Proof) and Ian McKellen. Many of the actors agreed to take union-scale pay to appear in cameos in the film, including Richard Gere, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin and Phil Collins, among others.
The point of the book, and the movie, is to detail the discovery of the virus while pointing out the indifferent reaction from government and media in the early years after the illness became known. It also discusses the squabbling in the scientific community that slowed the release of information that could have saved lives.
In 1978, doctors in San Francisco first noticed a mysterious illness was killing gay men. By 1981, the cases were on the rise in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, and it comes to the attention of doctors with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Don Francis (Modine), an epidemiologist, is one of the first to get involved with researching the disease. Francis theorizes that the disease is sexually transmitted, though no existing disease explains the symptoms.
In the beginning, the doctors face many challenges; interviewing people with the illness is tough because many of the gay men are still closeted and are unwilling to release the names of their sexual partners; the government limits funding to the project and for many years does not even acknowledge it; even people in the gay community are unwilling to support the research because they see it as an attack on their lifestyle.
In the end, both movies are worth a watch just to be informed about major medical discoveries. And both “Living Proof” and “And the Band Played On” are reminders that persistence in the face of obstacles can save lives.
