Sometimes I think that I know
What love's all about
And when I see the light
I know I'll be all right.
I've got my friends in the world,
I had my friends
When we were boys and girls
And the secrets came unfurled.
City of brotherly love
Place I call home
Don't turn your back on me
I don't want to be alone
Love lasts forever.
Someone is talking to me,
Calling my name
Tell me I'm not to blame
I won't be ashamed of love.
Philadelphia,
City of brotherly love.
Brotherly love.
Sometimes I think that I know
What love's all about
And when I see the light
I know I'll be all right.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is an Academy Award-winning 1993 drama film revolving around the HIV/AIDS epidemic, written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. It stars Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas. It was partly inspired by the story of Geoffrey Bowers, an attorney who in 1987 sued the law firm Baker & McKenzie for unfair dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases.Andrew Beckett (Hanks) is a University of Pennsylvania graduate who works for the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Andy is successful, easy-going, secretly gay, and an AIDS patient. Because his boss Jason Wheeler (Robards) has a strong prejudice against gay people, he hides the truth about his sexuality along with his life partner, Miguel Alvarez (Banderas) from the members of the firm. Though not a full partner in the firm, his legal performance is exceptional, and he is promoted to the post of Senior Associate (one step beneath full partnership) and he is assigned the most important case the firm has taken on.His condition has reached the stage when he has developed Kaposi's Sarcoma, a form of cancer marked by multiple tumors on the lymph nodes and skin. He has been using make-up to cover the lesions, but a member of the firm notices one that has appeared on his forehead. On the last day that they can file the papers in the case he has been assigned, he has finished the necessary forms for the case to be submitted. Leaving the paperwork on his desk in plain sight, he informs the clerk about it, instructing him to file them with the court, and he leaves. An hour later, the clerk phones him asking where the papers are — they are not on his desk. Additionally, all of the copies on his computer's hard drive have been erased. His work had been sabotaged and he is promptly fired from the law firm the next day.Andrew tries to hire a lawyer to take his case and sue the firm for illegal dismissal, lost earnings, and punitive damages, but nobody will take an AIDS patient as a client. One of the attorneys he attempts to hire is Joe Miller (Washington), a family man and injury lawyer against whom he had argued in an earlier case and who is secretly homophobic himself. Reluctant to take Andrew's case at first, and flaunting his fears and prejudices with his doctor and his wife, Joe changes gratifyingly during the course of the story.Ultimately, Andrew is compelled to act as his own attorney. They encounter each other again at the Philadelphia Library where he has been doing research; people in the room are leaving the immediate area when they see him and one librarian attempts to persuade him to move to a private room. Miller is disgusted with the behavior he is witnessing — behavior he was guilty of when earlier discussing the homosexual lifestyle with his wife — and, after going over some of the material Andrew had already prepared, decides to take the case. After Miller gives the firm a summons during a basketball game, they discuss wanting to find out if Beckett is a member of any LGBT rights groups and frequents gay bars.Both gain great trust and respect for each other as they fight a David v. Goliath case, much to the shock, admiration, and, for some, disgust of the population. Joe must show that Andrew is a good man, not a threat, and that his boss fired him under fraudulent pretenses as he begins to realize that gay and bisexual people are still human beings with feelings. As the case goes before the court, the partners of the firm take the stand one-by-one, and commit open perjury — smearing Andrew's name, claiming he was incompetent, and deliberately tried to hide his condition and sexual orientation. Andrew had planned to tell his employers about his homosexuality, however, after hearing his coworkers and the firm's head lawyer, Charles Wheeler, tell a homophobic joke in their athletic club's sauna, abandoned the idea.Andrew has a blackout in court and dies soon after. Andrew does, however, succeed in court and the jury orders the firm to make a large payout, consisting of $140,000 in back pay, $100,000 for pain and suffering and four million dollars in punitive damages.
The film is suffused with haunting music, with operatic arias used in several places and Neil Young's title song floating gently through its final scene. A stirring montage of Philadelphia street life, accompanied by a melancholically lilting Bruce Springsteen song, offers a resounding sense of vitality. The songs breathe both hope and frustration into the promise of brotherly love.
Philadelphia" rises above its bearable flaws to convey the full urgency of a sensitive subject, and to bring that subject home without being overtly maudlin.Tom Hanks's transformation from robust lawyer to visibly suffering AIDS patient cannot be forgotten in a hurry..
I was bruised and battered and I couldnt tell
What I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the streets of Philadelphia
I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of Philadelphia
Aint no angel gonna greet me
Its just you and I my friend
My clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin
The night has fallen,
Im lyinawake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia...
