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Drama 126 min PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes81%Metacritic66IMDb
No one would take on his case... until one man was willing to take on the system.
Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
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Resolved, spare, prestige and overwhelming.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
It's quite hard to overstate how significant this film was at a time when AIDS-driven homophobia was rife. Right from the outset with Bruce Springsteen's delicate opening ballad, this effectively counters an whole range of prejudices that prevailed not just in the USA but around the world. It's also, easily in my view, Tom Hanks's best performance as he plays hotshot lawyer "Andy" who has been feeling under the weather. Blood tests tell him the worst news that he shares with his loving family and boyfriend "Miguel" (Antonio Banderas) but he isn't really prepared to get fired from his job. Luckily, he had previously crossed paths with "Joe" (Denzel Washington) so he asks him to represent him in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. "Andy" is candid about his sexuality and his condition and the clearly wary "Joe" politely declines. It's a chance meeting in a law library a few days later that illustrates just the tip of the bigotry iceberg being faced by the visibly sickening man to get fair treatment and so "Joe" relents. What now ensues is, on the face of it, just another courtroom drama but it is hugely augmented by the willingness of some serious Hollywood establishment names to showcase
Read the whole review on TMDB**A dense, disturbing, difficult, but highly relevant film.** Well, those who has the patience and charity to read what I write may have already realized that I'm not a big fan of overly militant films, even if they are causes or ideas that I defend or with which I tend to agree. For me, cinema is above all entertainment and artistic expression, not a political, social or belief manifesto. However, it is really difficult not to make an exception when it comes to discrimination against people in the workplace. I know what my friendly reader is probably thinking: the film isn't about that, it's about AIDS. It is true. But AIDS is a pretext to justify what happens to that man. He is discriminated against and loses his job for being homosexual. I won't waste a lot of time explaining what happens in the film. It's relatively old and almost everyone has seen it at least once: Andrew Beckett is a young lawyer with a promising future until he discovers that he has contracted AIDS in a casual sexual encounter with another man. The disease becomes increasingly obvious to his bosses, and he ends up being fired, which is why he decides to sue the firm, arguing that the real motivation for the
Read the whole review on TMDBWhat do you love about the law, Andrew? Andrew Beckett is a gay lawyer infected with AIDS, who in spite of being his law firm's rising star, is fired on a trumped up charge of negligence. Refusing to accept defeat, Andrew manages to enlist the help of homophobic lawyer Joe Miller, whom it's hoped, can prove that the firm acted disgracefully out of fear of Andrew's illness. But can Joe throw off his own prejudice? Can Andrew keep it together as AIDS starts to take a hold? Philadelphia was the film to really bring the horrors of AIDS to the masses. Though certainly not the first film to deal with the subject, films such as "An Early Frost (1985)" and "As Is (1986)" had led the way, Philadelphia is certainly the most memorable of all the mainstream films dealing with the subject. As the years have rolled by, the film's standing has waned some what, gays have renounced the film as over sentimental gloop and various other cinema critics have accused the film of confusing its aims. The truth is that Philadelphia is only really guilty of playing it safe. Andrew Beckett is clearly wronged, and he's clearly a lovely and special man, supported by a complete and loyal loving family. It's the
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66 profiled raters. Loved most by The Sinceres; disliked most by The Ironists.
If you loved this film, the television, the book, the music, the game.
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