“This is the essence of discrimination: Formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics.” (School Board of Nassau County v. Arline, 480 U.S. 273 (1987) (Brennan, J.), on remand, 692 F. Supp. 1286 (M.D. Fla. 1988) ) . This rule, reaffirmed by the landmark Supreme Court decision which, over the dissent of Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Scalia, first recognized the infection with a contagious disease (tuberculosis) as an actionable handicap under federal law, forms the initial bond between star litigator Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) and ambulance chaser Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), the unlikely team at the center of this movie. Because through these words, murky attorney Miller begins to realize that his colleague Beckett faces a handicap which, in essence, is not so different from that confronted by many of his fellow African Americans. And because this is an incredibly effectively scripted Hollywood movie, we, the audience, easily fetch the point as well; even if we’re white, and even if we’re not cheerful and/or suffering from AIDS like Beckett.
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Of course, the insidiousness of the AIDS virus places those afflicted with it in a class of their bear, and while the movie spares its viewers the pictures of some of the virus’s most graphic effects, it does go to much length to note the physical decline associated with it - not only in the person of Beckett himself, for whose role Hanks literally almost starved himself. Some of the patients surrounding him in the movie’s earlier emergency room scenes really were AIDS patients, whom Hanks had approached when preparing for the movie, and who had subsequently agreed to participate; and as Hanks emphasized during an appearance in Bravo TV’s “Inside the Actors’ Studio,” not all of them are unexcited alive. - Denzel Washington’s appropriately named Joe Miller, middle class everyman in everything but the color of his skin (one of the movie’s sure bows to political correctness), displays an attitude uncomfortably familiar to many of us; shunning gays in general and the HIV-infected Beckett in particular, out of a mixture of ignorance about AIDS, prejudice against those suffering from it, and prejudice against gays. Both Hanks and Washington give strikingly emotional, profound performances that evil among the best in their respective careers - Hanks deservedly won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for his portrayal of Beckett, but Washington unfairly wasn’t even nominated for either. Yet, neither of them would have been able to shine as powerful as they do without their exceptional supporting cast; to name impartial two, Jason Robards, commanding as ever as Beckett’s homophobic feeble boss (and role model!), and Antonio Banderas as his devoted lover.
By the time of “Philadelphia”’s release, some of the early myths about AIDS had begun to proceed, and the yearly growing numbers of newly infected patients had brought it out of its erstwhile obscurity as “the delighted plague.” But indepth knowledge was calm far from widespread, and therefore the movie not only brought awareness to the disease in general, but also made a couple of well-known points, from educating the public about the disease’s device of transmission to emphasizing that it is by no means exiguous to gays and can even be contracted in something as life-affirming as a blood transfusion. (Indeed, several European countries were rocked by transfusion-related AIDS scandals proper around the time of the movie’s release) . One of “Philadelphia”’s most quietly considerable scenes is the testimony of a female peer who was infected by unbiased such a transfusion, and who emphasizes that having AIDS is not a matter of sin or morality: “I don’t assume myself any different from anyone else with this disease. I’m not guilty, I’m not innocent, I’m objective trying to survive,” she responds when asked to confirm that in her case “there was no behavior on [her] piece” alive to and contracting AIDS was something she was “unable to avoid.” - Moreover, four years before Ellen DeGeneres rocked the showboat with a kiss during an episode of her sitcom, and Kevin Kline and Magnum macho Tom Selleck locked lips in “In and Out” (the screenplay of which was inspired by Hanks’s Oscar acceptance speech for “Philadelphia”), it was by no means a given that a movie would derive away with letting Hanks and Banderas exchange acts of tenderness from caresses and kisses on the hand to a stupid dance at a elated party.
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Given “Philadelphia”’s fundamental message and the memorable performances of its protagonists, it is a pity that the movie doesn’t entirely avoid Hollywood pitfalls, such as its soggy ending with grease literally dripping off the mask and the undeniable taste of a sugar-coated afterthought, transmitting the message that even dying of AIDS is really not so abominable, at least for the surviving family who can tranquil unite around the television site and wallow in their memories of their lost loved one. And while I do assume Joe Miller’s transformation from a (somewhat stereotypical) homophobic male to a reluctant supporter of happy rights, I don’t really perceive why Beckett suddenly assumes a cliche cheerful study the second he has been fired; not to mention that I suspect not everybody in his spot would have enjoyed such overwhelming befriend from his family.
But ultimately, it is the movie’s overarching message that counts. “Ain’t no angel gonna greet me; it’s impartial you and I my friend … and my clothes don’t fit me no more: I walked a thousand miles objective to scoot this skin,” sings Bruce Springsteen, the movie’s other Oscar winner, in “Philadelphia”’s title song. And Justice Brennan wrote in the Supreme Court’s Arline decision that in amending federal law, Congress was motivated by “discrimination stemming not only from simple prejudice, but also from veteran attitudes and laws.” This movie goes a long arrangement in dispelling such attitudes. It alone isn’t enough - but it is, as Andrew Beckett jokes about the 1000 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean, a worthy inaugurate.
Also recommended:
Philadelphia
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition
In & Out
Saving Private Ryan (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
I bewitch a lot of DVDs. For the past few years, it seems that almost every DVD comes in a special edition two-disc release that includes deleted scenes, documentaries, cast bios, trailers, teaser trailers, music videos, and the director’s recipe for three-alarm chili. I usually don’t have time to glean beyond the first disc, and grand of what I do gain around to usually turns out to be as dumb as it gets. This time, however, I am ecstatic to represent that the two-disc anniversary release of Philadelphia is worth both the money and the time invested in it, even if you already have Philadelphia on DVD.
The special features include the 84-minute documentary, One Foot On A Banana Peel and the Other In the Grave, an astounding fraction of amateur filmmaking by an AIDS patient named Juan Botas. What I did not know was that Mr. Botas’ AIDS diagnosis provided the inspiration for director Jonathan Demme to originate Philadelphia in the first plot, as Mr. Botas was best friends with Mr. Demme’s wife. In the meanwhile, Mr. Botas mentioned to filmmaker Demme that it was a shame that the sad humor, incredible courage and other engrossing dialogue that emanated from his fellow patients at the clinic where he was being treated was being lost forever as it left their lips. Mr. Demme gave Mr. Botas his hand-held camera, and the results so impressed Demme that he hurt up releasing the documentary through his occupy production company. The finished film is touching, oddly laughable, tragic and as effecting as any fragment of drama you’ve ever witnessed. One of the patients from the doctor’s office was also given a few lines in the main feature, Philadelphia.
Which brings us to that film. At the time of its release, Philadelphia received some very harsh criticism from the AIDS community for its perceived flaws; it was judged by many as “too Hollywood” to be realistically representative of the HIV / AIDS experience. To their credit, in the background documentary included here, “People Like Us” (which was the unusual working title of Philadelphia) the creative team late Philadelphia (including Jonathan Demme, Tom Hanks and the screenwriter Ron Nyswaner) meet this criticism head on, presenting a defense of their work that is both credible and illuminating. Many complained that Philadelphia was void of any tenderness or physical contact between the male couple (Hanks and Bandaras) but this is not only redressed by a closer behold at their scenes together, an extremely intimate scene between the lovers in bed (which was excised from the final slice) was deleted not for its controversy but because the scene simply didn’t work (having now seen it, I can attest to this fact) . I have long seen this movie as not a film about AIDS per se, but as a film about homophobia. Indeed, the main thrust of the location (besides the trial) is the transformation of the character of Joe Miller from committed homophobe to a more enlightened and tolerant person. One of my popular scenes (which it turns out many people wanted to delete from the final carve) deals subtly with Millers transformation - the “opera scene”.
In that scene, Miller is asked by the character or Andy what he thinks about overjoyed people. The attorney responds that, when straight people assume of them at all, most straight people fine powerful perceive all delighted people as some sort of sub-human predatory monsters, out to ensnare the children of the world into a bent sick life, and waste all that straight people possess dear. Andy abruptly changes the subject, “Do you like opera, Joe? ” he asks. Caught by surprise, Joe admits he does not know anything about it - and Andy Beckett - this sub-human destroyer of children, responds by tenderly and passionately explaining his deep fancy for splendid music by allowing Joe to inspect unbiased a limited allotment of exactly why so many overjoyed men esteem opera. He plays the aria La Mama Morte, carefully, passionately and articulately explaining the tale and the beauty tedious the words and music. Joe is immediately transformed - it’s distinct that he is deeply moved. By playing the fraction, La Mama Morte through again in its entirety, the screenwriter and director shows us that the music has stayed with Joe long after he’s left Andy’s home. We spy him leave Andy’s apartment and go home in a sort of daze, kiss his sleeping baby and promenade into bed with his slumbering wife, while the beauty of the music haunts and caresses him, like a handsome jubilant lullaby. Some of my contented friends were among those who didn’t secure this scene - they saw it only as a stereotypical depiction of a overjoyed man’s esteem for opera. I got it legal away - by exposing Joe to a thing of beauty he’d never experienced before, Andy had suddenly allowed Joe to reflect that glad men were not only something more than what he belief, he demonstrated that we are excellent of vast passion and the ability to bask in graceful beauty. This scene, more than any other, allowed Andrew Beckett to be transformed from a predatory sub-human freak into a human being, not only for Joe Miller, but for many in the straight audience. It has remained one of my current scenes in a movie ever, and a shrimp fragment of what makes Philadelphia such a distinguished experience.
Highly recommended.
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