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starring: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington directed by: Jonathan Demme

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Average Rating: Rating: - Important social commentary Based on a real-life case, director Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") sets out in "Philadelphia" to recount the struggle of one AIDS-infected man seeking judicial redress after he is fired from his job, he believes because of his sexual orientation and terminal illness. Though it certainly wasn't the first film to deal with AIDS, "Philadelphia" was the first major studio to take on the subject with an A-list cast. As attorney Andrew Beckett seeking to challenge his job termination in court, Tom Hanks, of course, won the first of his two back-to-back Oscars ("Forrest Gump" followed a year later), and has solid support by Denzel Washington as the reluctant fellow attorney who pleads Beckett's case; Jason Robards, in the dispassionate role of the law partner who orchestrates Beckett's dismissal; Antonio Banderas as Beckett's lover; and Joanne Woodward as Beckett's supportive mother. On that count, the film may be somewhat idealistic in that, tragically, not all gay and AIDS-infected men have the support of their families. But the film does provide important social commentary on institutional prejudice and case law as it applies to the person with AIDS. Sadly, while the film ends with some measure of justice for Beckett, his real-life counterpart was not successful in winning his case against the employer who fired him. The film garnered a second Oscar, that one for Bruce Springsteen's powerful "Streets of Philadelphia." In sum, "Philadelphia" is a relevant social film that speaks to our individual and collective conscience. Rating: - Fear and Loathing In March 2002, Denzel Washington was awarded his first Best Actor Academy Award. It was a little late in coming. A myriad of roles in films like "Bone Collector" and "A Soldier's Story" were all Oscar performances. But perhaps his best was in "Philadelphia". 1993's "Philadelphia" is the brutal, uncompromising story of a hot young lawyer, fired by his firm for being gay and contracting a virus. The principal attorney charges that "Andy brought AIDS into our offices". A heart-rending, spell-binding expose of prejudice and bigotry in 20th Century America, "Philadelphia" is really a horror film, where the monster is you and I. We're guilty. We shun the homosexual and bar the AIDS victim. We extend little mercy to society's modern "lepers". Do you doubt it? Then pick up this marvelous DVD. In "Philadelphia", Tom Hanks won his first of 2 Academy Awards. Directed by ace Jonathan Demme, it features Antonio Banderas, Joanne Woodward, the late Jason Robards, and movie director Roger Corman. The award-winning soundtrack includes haunting Neil Young songs and music from Bruce Springsteen. The DVD has no chapter stops, no bios, no trailer, and no featurette. In fact, "Philadelphia" has no extras at all. That's OK. This 125 minute classic movie is all you need. Maybe more than you can take. Rating: - Lawyers in love. Self-congratulatory movie about a Philadelphia lawyer with AIDS who's wrongly terminated from the prestigious, Good Ole Boy law firm of which he was about to be junior parter. Chronologically speaking, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia is a rather suspicious follow-up to his previous film, The Silence of the Lambs. What most may not remember is the beating he took from the gay community for that film. THIS film, therefore, seems like an overdetermined apology. But I digress. Well, not really: the notion of the movie being an "apology" strikes me as the key to the Aren't-We-Enlightened, And-If-You're-Not-We're-Going-To-Bully-You-Till-You-ARE attitude throughout. ... [Our] surrogate for this story is the Denzel Washington character, an ambulance-chaser who overcomes his reluctance to take Tom Hanks' unlawful termination suit. The movie's mighty hard on poor Denzel: Demme, avatar of Enlightenment that he is, goes out of his way to make Denzel's lawyer as friendly as possible . . . and as bigoted toward gays as possible, and not just early on in the proceedings, either. (He has some sort of epiphany late in the movie, one that we're not a party to.) Evidently we're supposed to wholly identify with Denzel: family man, hard worker, good American, and homophobe. The filmmakers work on the audience just as hard as they work on the ambulance-chaser: we and he need Enlightenment. I think we're supposed to be overwhelmed by the irony of Denzel and his white pals trading homophobic jokes; I just felt bullied by this rather questionable, in fact distasteful, sermonizing. Not that the movie is wholly without merit: from a technical standpoint, at least, Demme does some interesting things with the camera, particularly during the scene when Tom Hanks, attached to an I.V., explicates an opera to his lawyer. It was also cool to see Demme's mentor Roger Corman in a bit part. In fact, the performances are indeed solid all round -- even Robard's senior partner, despite the fact that the character is really poorly conceived (a "razor-sharp" legal mind would never behave that way on the stand).

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