Review of Philadelphia (1993) by Andy O — 17 Sep 2009

Some films are just plain moving , some are interesting and others are groundbreaking and Philadelphia is a film that certainly is all of the above.

The first film concerning the aids epidemic Philadelphia is simply brilliant.

Tom Hanks plays a successful lawyer that happens to be gay (in secret) and unfortunately became a victim of the 'Gay Plague' and was fired when he started showing symptoms and he decides to sue his former employers for wrongful dismissal.

Denzel Washington plays a TV Lawyer that being black is no stranger to prejudice himself however is initially reluctant to take the case as tbh he is a bigot.

Growing up and living in a more liberal country as well as in a more liberal time I was struck by the harshness of peoples reactions to aids victims; there is a particular scene that comes to mind when writing this review. The board members are discussing a particular days testimony in the courtroom and one turned to the other and said "he brought aids into our men's room" .

The director Jonathan Demme treats the story with the up-most respect and this shows in the film , he resists the temptation of big personal back stories and dramatic music, done to death in modern movies. Instead it is clear that it actually doesn't matter the particular circumstances of Toms character as well his character is merely representing the plight of thousands (now millions of people).

It takes a lot to effect me , I have watched and reviews a lot of films in my time however this film came me supreme respect for anyone that is dealing with or is effected by AIDS as well as any homosexual or bisexual person that lived through the 1980s and the early 1990s.

I normally arnt a fan of tom hanks , he tends to be a little one- dimensional and well struggles to bring depth to a character; well in Philadelphia his performance certainly was worthy of the Oscar and was well phenomenal and sadly the best it seems of his career.

Whatever your views on Piracy and file sharing I honestly believe that some films , films that are really important and actually create a desire for significant social change should be seen as wildly as possible, I believe this is one of those masterpieces.

I believe that homophobia wont be stamped out by just watching this film, I read on IMDB that Fred Phelps that bastard that is anti homosexual and is such a bigot I want to spit when I say or write his name has called the film "one of my favorite comedies" so thus I realized there will always be idoits in the world. However films like Philadelphia and the praise they recieve brings much needed hope to our society: to quote the distinguished film critic Rodger Ebert "it is a good start".