When Bob told me he wanted me to review Philadelphia next in PositiveLite.com's “HIV Movies through New Eyes” series I swallowed hard. What on earth could I possibly say about this iconic movie? I mentioned none of this to Bob, of course, so here I sit, film freshly watched and I’m still very much under its spell and… WHAT can I possibly say about this iconic movie?
Well, I can say this: Philadelphia is an extremely influential film about HIV, AIDS, homosexuality and the conflation of the three in popular consciousness during the “gay plague” days of HIV in America.
It tells the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a Senior Associate at a Philadelphia law firm, whose work is sabotaged by the firm once they discover he has AIDS so that they can have an excuse to fire him. When he is fired Andy wants to sue his former employers for wrongful termination but can find no one to represent him.
No one, that is, until lawyer number ten. Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) is a personal injury lawyer, a homophobe and a mysophobe. If this seems an unlikely alliance, it is; Joe turns Andrew down on his first approach and then rushes off to the doctor to make sure he hasn’t caught anything from Andy during the interview.
Having been educated and reassured by the doc, Joe goes home to his wife and finds himself talking about “faggots”. How he “can’t stand that shit”.
“You can call me old fashioned, you can call me conservative… just call me a man”, says Joe. But his wife gently lets him know that she finds his attitude a bit weird and out of touch.
Weeks later, seeing Andy at a law library as he researches his case, Miller is witness to discrimination against Andy as the librarian tries to make Andy go to a private room to do his work. This incenses Miller, a young black attorney who just may have come up against some discrimination issues himself, and he takes the case on the spot.
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As the court case unfolds it becomes apparent that Andy’s sex life is going to be effectively put on trial as is memorably crystallized in Joe Miller’s “Are you a faggot?” line of questioning.
And that’s all I want to outline the plot except for this:
For me the most arresting scene is the one that comes just after the party. Here, and not in the courtroom is where the ultimate debunking of stereotypes occurs.
Joe and Andy are about to go over Andy’s case when Andy’s favorite aria begins. It’s “La Mama Morta” sung by Callas and as the music reaches its zenith Andy translates the Italian libretto for Joe, who is “not that familiar with opera”. And magic happens here.
“Look, the place that cradled me is burning… I bring sorrow to those who love me… it was during this sorrow that Love came to me… It said, ‘Live still. I am life…I am oblivion… I am God come down to Earth to make of the Earth a heaven… I am Love…’ ”
Andy translates for Joe, for this bigot who has up until then believed in every negative gay stereotype there is and as he does so he lays bare not just his human heart but THE human heart in all its desperate finitude and glorious transcendence, the things that make us all so much more similar than different, however different we may be.
"Every time I watch a movie about HIV and AIDS I thank my lucky stars that I was diagnosed eleven months ago and not twenty years so that I can benefit from things that weren’t around then, like antiretroviral treatment."
And as the music peaks Tom, Denzel, Jonathan and Maria join forces to work a powerful alchemy. Joe sees and is transformed.
It’s a remarkable scene; one of the most emotionally potent I’ve ever viewed and a stunning example of what can be done with art. How it can succeed in putting across the essence of something when the entire war of words falls short. I can’t get through it with a dry face.
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This movie wants to open that same door for society at large, which is still used to thinking of gay people as caricatures, if at all. It wants to start a thought process among us that would lead to recognition of one another’s essential humanity and that as parts of a whole we need one another.
Looking at it in this light I find the movie to be remarkably skillful agitprop for a mainstream target audience. It was the first big budget, big star feature film to tackle HIV and AIDS (though not the first feature film to do so; Longtime Companion and Parting Glances both preceded it) and its producers wanted it to be a success.
So yes, it owes a debt to Capra. And yes, they cast "A list" stars and approached Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young for the intro and closing songs respectively in the hope that their mainstream appeal would get more people to think past the stigma. And yes, it’s a bit of a period piece. In an era when the science and the dialog are changing so (relatively) quickly, that’s hard to avoid.
Anyway, it worked. The film was a box office success and both Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen won Academy Awards. The film is widely credited with raising awareness and changing the dialog on HIV and AIDS in America.
Every time I watch a movie about HIV and AIDS I thank my lucky stars that I was diagnosed eleven months ago and not twenty years so that I can benefit from things that weren’t around then, like antiretroviral treatment.
On the treatment front we hear mostly good news these days. But the same struggles against stigma and discrimination (legal and otherwise) go on and seemingly on in an unending tug o’ war, making this film as relevant as it ever was.
Though there is great sadness in this movie I find no despair; just courage and determination and humanity, by which I mean all the things that make humans great once they put their minds to it. I find great inspiration here and I’ll take that where I can get it.
And to the naysayers (and there are those who dislike this movie) I say: Please make a film as good or better if you can. We need to see yours too. Not like it’s a crowded field or anything.