Philadelphia

Philadelphia (1993) was the first major Hollywood film about AIDS, and it tells the story of a wrongful dismissal. Andrew Beckett is a successful lawyer at a large firm. He is HIV positive and gay, and hides both. One day an important file goes missing and he is fired. Believing the real reason is his illness, he sues. The only lawyer who will take him is Joe Miller, who is openly uncomfortable around gay men. That is the method: the film puts the audience in Miller's position, not Beckett's. As Miller changes, the audience changes. For the viewers of that moment it was a deliberate choice. Tom Hanks lost serious weight and won best actor. The opening song, written by Bruce Springsteen, won best song. The best scene is the opera. Listening to an aria, Beckett talks about his illness, his death and his life; the camera does not leave him and Miller simply listens. Jonathan Demme directed, immediately after The Silence of the Lambs. The film was also sued: the family of a real lawyer claimed the story had been taken from him. Seen now, parts of it look overly cautious; it was softened considerably to keep the mainstream audience of the time. It runs 125 minutes. Good for: courtroom drama, the nineties, and performance. Less good for: the subject is heavy, the illness is shown in detail, and the ending is hard.