Philadelphia (1993)

Average rating

(73%)

Starring:	Tom Hanks \| Denzel Washington \| Jason Robards \| Mary Steenburgen \| Antonio Banderas \| Tracey Walter \| Joanne Woodward
Director:	Jonathan Demme
Studio:	COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO
Run time:	120 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Released:	May 26, 1998

After a solid track record and a much-deserved promotion, Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a handsome, upwardly mobile Philadelphia lawyer, loses his high-paying corporate job when he starts developing full-blown AIDS. Though Andrew's firm attributes his dismissal to his supposedly poor performance, he knows otherwise, and he won't accept the firm's discrimination lying down. Andrew will do whatever is necessary to prosecute. But when nine other lawyers refuse to help him, Andrew reluctantly hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a showy, homophobic, ambulance-chasing lawyer whose first reaction to the news that Andrew has AIDS is to rush to the doctor and have himself checked. Despite Joe's fear and dislike of gays, he and Andrew discover they've got quite a bit in common, and they decide they're going to fight to the finish. The result is an emotionally potent drama that doesn't flinch from exposing the long-term effects of the disease on Beckett and his friends and family. Jonathan Demme directs and Bruce Springstein sings the title song, 'Streets of Philadelphia,' part of an Academy Award-winning score.

Radio Times

This was the first major Hollywood movie about Aids, and it won Tom Hanks his first best actor Oscar. Hanks plays homosexual lawyer Andrew Beckett, who takes his powerful employers to court for sacking him. The company bigwigs claim he was dismissed for incompetence, but Beckett suspects the real reason is his Aids-related illness. Beckett's counsel is wheeler-dealer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), who despises homosexuals but worships fair play, while Beckett's boss, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), is a bigot whose intolerance is hidden by bluff camaraderie. Hanks, meanwhile, portrays the ravaged, dying Beckett as a disabled everyman whose life has lessons for all of us. His passionate crescendo of praise for opera is a tour de force of close-up acting.

Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

A feel-good film about AIDS, set within a standard Hollywood courtroom drama; it is well made and absorbing, given its limits.

Highest rated reviews

8 out of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4.0 stars
Worthy but moving

A Customer from Glasgow, Scotland, 19th May, 2005

Whatever you think of this film Tom Hanks does an outstanding job as the lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm when they fire him. For its time it was groundbreaking. I have to wonder how far we've come when current projects like Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain' still shy from showing real onscreen intimacy between two men. Denzel Washington's everyman character almost steals the show from Hanks. Their relationship is one of the movie's highlights, given that it downplays that between Hanks and his beautiful lover, played by Antonio Banderas, who hovers in the background offering love and support. I suppose the filmmakers ought to be commended for not just preaching to the converted but trying to confront homophobia. It is ironic that a film about prejudice and discrimination against a gay man is afraid to deal with what that means, as though a sexually active gay man is somehow less deserving of our sympathy than a saintly victim. I was undeniably moved, and it is a very good film. However I suggest you rent 'Parting Glances' with Steve Buscemi to see a real gay man with AIDS, or get hold of 'Longtime Companion' which is a more honest film.

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