Watch Philadelphia For Free

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A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I saw this movie when it came out and thought it was ok, I mean Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks how could you miss? I saw it recently again (2017) and was deeply moved by it. Couldn't hold back the tears at the end even though I tried real hard. Faint memories of the film Brian's Song seemed to come back and of the film Born Free which I remember as moving as well.

Philadelphia (1993) was directed by Jonathan Demme. The AIDS epidemic started in the early 1980's, and movies about AIDS started to appear in the mid-1980s. However, to my knowledge, Philadelphia was the first high-budget, mainstream film about AIDS to appear on the screen.TriStar certainly provided the funds to attract an all-star cast. Tom Hanks portrays brilliant lawyer Andrew Beckett. When Beckett is fired from his high-prestige law firm, no lawyer wants to touch his case for wrongful dismissal. Denzel Washington plays Joe Miller, who agrees to represent Beckett. (Joe is himself uncomfortable with AIDS. However, he knows injustice when he sees it.) Antonio Banderas plays Beckett's loving partner, Miguel Alvarez. Jason Robards is perfectly cast as Charles Wheeler, Beckett's mentor until he becomes Beckett's enemy. All four men are superstars, and it's easy to see why.The film doesn't just have star power in the leading roles. Great actors like Roberta Maxwell and Joanne Woodward have small supporting roles.The movie is courageous in facing AIDS directly. In the 1980's and 1990's, people distinguished between "good AIDS" and "bad AIDS." Good AIDS was AIDS that people contracted from blood transfusions. So, the thought was that these people were innocent victims.Bad AIDS came from (mostly) men having sex with men. In retrospect, we can see the moral error in this good vs. evil judgment. But, at the time, gay sex was considered evil, and many people thought that gay men with AIDS deserved the disease. How this prejudice played out inside and outside the courtroom represents the plot of the movie. It's very strong and truly heart-wrenching.We saw this film at the excellent Dryden Theatre at George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. It was shown at Rochester's wonderful ImageOut, the LGBT Film Festival. Almost all of the movies shown at ImageOut are new, cutting-edge films. Philadelphia was shown under the heading, "ImageOut of the Archives." The movie was made almost 25 years ago, and it's being shown again to mark that anniversary.Philadelphia is an important film, and shouldn't be missed. It will work very well on the small screen. Find it and watch it. (Or, as I did, watch it again.)P.S. Mary Steenburgen has a supporting role as Belinda Conine, the attorney representing Beckett's former law firm. I can't remember when an actor has made so strong an impression in a relatively small role. She's just what you'd expect in this context--brilliant, eloquent, with a heart that has no room for conscience or remorse. She knows that the law firm had dismissed Beckett because he had AIDS. However, that's not going to stop her in the least. It's not even going to slow her down.

This movie displays array of multiple emotions, it made me feel passionate, sorry, angry and sad at the same time. There are not many movies on this subject lurking around. it's one of those that when one makes it, it is hard to make another one about the same subject, and it really targets crucial issues of mid-late 20th century. Great act by Tom Hanks which, honestly, i was kind of expecting, followed by the dramatic scenes in "The Green mile" or in "Forrest Gump". All and all, Judging the entire effect of the movie, it was amazing. "Philadelphia is a good movie and it is especially outstanding for its time 1993, what is the most important that this movie actually provided information of how people who are infected with HIV feel like until it turns into AIDS.

The topic is quite interesting, but everything depends on how you approach...Summarize a topic as susceptible of different interpretations in terms of "good guys" and "bad guys", I think it is unwise. I'm not arguing for or against the decision of the jury, or if Andrew Beckett's company was responsible for unfair dismissal. I'm just saying that the movie is not objective from the beginning.Anyway, is quite watchable in general. I therefore remain with Jonathan Demme's direction, concretely the first 5 min. of the movie, in which makes a lovely portrait of Philadelphia.6/10