AIDS in the Movie Philadelphia

1498 Words3 Pages

PHILADELPHIA

Rated: PG-13 Release Date: 23-Dec-1993 DVD Date: 02-Nov-2004 HBS User Ratings
Directed By: Written By: Cast: 1 review, 12 ratings

Jonathan Demme Ron Nyswaner Tom Hanks
Denzel Washington Awesome 16.67%
Antonio Banderas Worth A Look 11.11%
Our Reviewer Says: Jason Robards Just Average 16.67%

"It's a touchy subject."
- MP Bartley
Joanne Woodward Pretty Crappy 44.44%
Mary Steenburgen Sucks 11.11%

Now here's a controversial one - the portrayal of homosexuals and the ravages of AIDS in the movies. How exactly does a machine like Hollywood, not exactly known for its subtlety, cover subjects like these? Does it make a gritty, realistic adult portrayal of the issues at hand? Or does it make a soft-hearted and ultimately dishonest plea for acceptance? Take a guess.

Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) is one of Philadelphia's most promising lawyers. He's the hot rookie and is hired by a top law firm headed by Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards). Andy is also gay and dying from AIDS. When the physical signs of the disease begin to manifest themselves, the firm gets cold on Andy and he's out of a job. They tell him it's because he has an attitude problem and his work is mediocre, but Andy knows it's more personal than that. After no other law firm will take his case for unfair dismissal, his last resort is old adversary Joe Miller (Denzel Washington). Joe, a homophobe with an innate fear of AIDS, is reluctant to take the case also because of his personal reasons, but after seeing Andy humiliated in a public library, can't resist standing his corner with him.

You can see immediately why Hollywood took this film to their heart. Hey, it's about ISSUES! But in typical Hollywood fashion, they can't resist the temptation to dumb the issue down to make it easier to sell. It's a difficult thing sometimes, criticising a film like 'Philadelphia' as it leaves the critic open to accusations of homophobia themselves, but 'Philadelphia' patronises the homosexual community so much, it's like an instruction video for schoolkids "Listen kids - gays are people too, you know?".

For instance, Andy's family are a carbon-copy of the Walton's. A more loving, accepting family you could never hope to meet, right down to the last second cousin. But wouldn't it have been more interesting and realistic to show some conflict within the family? Would all of Andy's male heterosexual relatives been so accepting of him? I know people now who are still ostracised from their family because they're gay.

Show More
Related

  • For The Bible Tells Me So By Daniel Karslake

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overall the film was a very informative film for a more homophobic audience. The content was relatable and connected well with the information and discussions that have been within our society for a long time. It was a well-done film that really questions the homophobic opinions and while this is still a very real debate in today’s society the film does a great job at arguing the homophobic opinions.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Duck Dynasty And Modern Family

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the families themselves may not directly relate to their audience, the plot does, and that is what makes these shows so successful. In addition, there are parallels in the television series to real life, making it easier for the audience to relate to. One example of this is that in the first season, Jay, along with many other family members, was not very accepting of Mitchell’s homosexuality and his relationship with Cam; however, in the newest season, the characters are more supportive of their sexuality and relationship. This change symbolizes society’s increasing tolerance to gay couples, even though gays still undergo many struggles. Additionally, both shows feature families that display sound family values who rally to overcome various situations and are then able to look back and laugh about it (Feiler ST.1).

    Read More

  • African Killer Bees Essay

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is because of the multiple problems it solves with having minimal drawbacks. This solution allows the specie of the honey bee to become more robust and overcome the problem of dying from parasites in varroa mite and pesticides with only having the deficiencies of them becoming more aggressive and more difficult to manage in colonies. These imperfections are insignificant because the bees will still be kept in rural areas handled by professionals who know how to manage colonies without getting harmed. If we start to interbreed with African killer bees, then our crop production will continue to go up, we will not have to worry about running out of essential fruits and vegetables, and it will boost our economy not just by the revenue of crop production, but by harvesting more honey because of the increasing population due to a stronger specie being

    Read More

  • The Hollywood’s Blacklist

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... middle of paper ... ... Larry Ceplair and Englund stated in the book The Inquisition in Hollywood, “The destruction of the motion picture Left not only transformed the political atmosphere in Hollywood, but also adversely affected the kind of product which the studios turned out. “ In the early 20th century Hollywood reframed from producing politically controversial films in fear of becoming a target of McCarthy or the HUAC.

    Read More

  • AIDS: Keeping New Queer Cinema Alive

    3357 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Queer Cinema is Back” – headlines the front page of the 2005 issue of the Advocate, signifying to a new flood of movies making way into theatres. Five years prior to this news release B. Ruby Rich, who coined the art as New Queer Cinema almost a decade earlier, declared that the cinema had co-opted into “just another niche market” dominated by popular culture (Morrison 135 & Rich 24). What had seemed to be a movement, turned out to be only a moment in the brief years between the late 1980s and early 1990s when the energies of queer theory, the furies of AIDS activism, the legacies of independent and avant-garde filmmaking, and the schisms of postmodern identity politics came together in a bluster of cultural production to form a cinema of its own (Morrison 136). In many ways Rich’s criticism of the cinema is correct, the queer aspect that so brightly shone in films like Poison, Swoon, Paris Is Burning, Tongues Untied, The Living End and Head On, was shifting as the new millennium was approaching and making more difficult for queer films to stay queer against the forces of Hollywood. However, Rich lacks in her analysis on New Queer Cinema because she does not consider the breadth to which queer operates as a concept within the cinema. For Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, the editors of Queer Cinema, queer is an umbrella term encompassing dissident sexualities through history and, indeed, nominating them more productively than they were ever named in their own time (Morrison 137). For Michele Aaron, queer is a specific product of exigencies of social activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s, “with AIDS accelerating its urgency” and New Queer Cinema arising as an “art-full manifestation” of i...

    Read More

  • Circadian Sleep Essay

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our bodies rely on two different things to let our bodies know when we need to be asleep. One is called the circadian rhythm, which is the physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a twenty four hour cycle, that revolves around the light and dark of the day. Basically, our bodies are like our own little clocks which are controlled by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic

    Read More

  • Family In The Goldsmith Family

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...y couple who co-habituate. Hal is the breadwinner of the Goldsmith family and it would be devastating if he were unable to provide financially if fired because of his sexual orientation. Not only could the lack of discrimination policy create money hardship but also have the potential to deny the family access to necessary healthcare.

    Read More

  • Vanishing Of The Honeybees Essay

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Europe and even in China honeybee populations are decreasing. This has an impact on everyone in the market. It effects how they food gets to the dinner table and how much it cost to put it there. Fresh produces will eventually end up being fresh produce from across the ocean or fresh produce made in a lab. It wasn’t until October 2006 when Hackenburg came public about his bees vanishing that anybody noticed that the bees were dispersing, but still scientist can’t prove the exact cause to CCD. In America nothing has really been done yet to help the honeybees. Other countries, like Europe did at least tried to maintain the current population of honeybees by amending a law that prohibited certain types of pesticides that many be harmful to honeybees. The most important thing that could be done to protect the honeybees is stop using pesticides that are harmful to important creatures like honeybees. Just like Europe did, put a ban on harmful chemicals to honeybees, until the honeybees numbers start to increase. Another logical way to help the honeybee population is to give a tax credit to people who decide to become bee keepers since bees are very important to the US economic

    Read More

  • Sleep Deprivation

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    The sleep-cycle is what makes everyone sleep and wake up every night and morning. The basic mechanisms of the sleep-wake cycle consist of approximately 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of being awake. This cycle is controlled by combination internal influences of both sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms. Homeostasis is “the process by which the body maintains a steady state of internal conditions such as blood pressure, body temperature, and acid-base balance”, and Circadian rhythms “refer to the cyclical changes-like fluctuations in body temperature, hormone levels, and sleep that occurs over a 24 hour-period”. (NSF)

    Read More

  • Stereotypes: Consequences and Controversies

    2114 Words  | 5 Pages

    What is stereotype? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stereotype as “believing unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Stereotypes are everywhere. Stereotypes cover racial groups, gender, political groups and even demographic. Stereotypes affect our everyday lives. Sometimes people are judged based on what they wear, how they look, how they act or people they hang out with. Gender and racial stereotypes are very controversial in today’s society and many fall victims. Nevertheless, racial and gender stereotypes have serious consequences in everyday life. It makes individuals have little to no motivation and it also puts a label about how a person should act or live. When one is stereotype they

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie And The Band Played On

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie, And the Band Played On, portrays a current issue the U.S. health care system face: the effects of societal perceptions of people who should receive health care support. Those perceived as undeserving are disregarded. Homosexual men were the first to be affected by AIDS in the US, and because of this, the stigma of homosexuality prevented developing health care policy to control the epidemic. Homosexuality was, and to a lesser extent now, not widely accepted. Marginalizing gay individuals was seen in the movie at the beginning, when media coverage on AIDs would not include “homosexual” within the news title (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). This represents how media has to be marketed; the broader public will not be interested if a new disease only affects an undesirable population. Another example of this negligence is seen when Phillip Burton is asked to introduce a bill on AIDS. He agrees, but does not hesitate to retort, “They couldn’t get a dime out of this administration with the name gay on it” (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). Finally, in order to change the perception, at the CDC conference with blood agencies, they renamed gay related immune deficiency (GRID) to AIDS, and the film cuts to news segments finally covering

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird and Philadelphia

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie ‘Philadelphia’ explores prejudice against having AIDS [also being homosexual]. In the film, Andrew Beckett (played by Tom Hanks) is a lawyer with a huge opportunity as a lawyer in front of him. When he finds out he had AIDS he chose not to tell his firm mentor about either his disease or his sexual orientation. Andrew is fired for, as his firm members claim, ‘incompetence’ however we can see it is more. Andrew was fired because he had AIDS and was assumed gay (at this time AIDS was know the ‘gay disease’). The movie shows Andrews struggle to be treated equally.

    Read More

  • Child Sexual Abuse and Resiliency

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    The lasting effects of childhood sexual assault into adulthood can be debilitating is resiliency possible. I chose this topic because it is of great interest to me I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Upon starting the research, I had preconceived notions of what would be found. Lasting effects can be, low self-esteem, sexual promiscuity, sexual issues, attachment issues, suppression of the abuse, PTSD, grieving a lost childhood, and a feeling of always wanting to be in control of situations. In addition, I expected to find some might suffer from nightmares, eating disorders, poor academic achievement, OCD issues, a feeling of inferiority and not fitting in, as well as parental rejection. To coin a phrase from Friedrich Nietzsche, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” (Nietzsche, 2001-2011 ©) I believe with a proper support system of family, friends, and counseling resiliency can and will prevail.

    Read More

  • Gay and Lesbian Visibility in Movies and Television

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    The family unit has always been a treasured and revered dynamic on television and in movies. Dating all the way back to I Love Lucy, storylines focused on the relationship between man and woman. Ozzie and Harriet introduced us to the quintessential American family—father in a suit, mother in pearls, and two exceptional children. It wasn’t until the 1970s that gay characters and lifestyles began to emerge. In 1973, An American Family, a PBS series featured one of the family’s sons revealing his homosexuality. In 1977, the television show Soap costarred Billy Crystal as an openly gay man. In the 1980s, it became trendy to feature gay and lesbian characters in ensemble casts. If you watch reruns, you can always find the token gay, that is, the really flaming homo or the butch lesbian gym teacher. The motion picture Mannequin, starring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Catrall, featured Meshach Taylor as Hollywood, an eccentric, finger-snapping homosexual. Many stereotypes such as these continued until the early nineties.

    Read More

  • Madness And Symbolism In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poe starts off the short story by giving us insight into the unnamed narrator’s twisted mind. The narrator explains his desire and plans to kill the old

    Read More

More about AIDS in the Movie Philadelphia

Open Document