Not as great as I remember

Tom Hanks really is a marvel in “Philadelphia”, the movie that basically sent him skyrocketing into the upper echelons of all-time great actors. As for the movie, Jonathan Demme’s film is a landmark, not for being first, but for being the first real successful one about AIDS/HIV.

It’s one of those films, I now realize, looked better in the 90’s than it does today. Sort of an Intro 101 to tough subject matter, made with earnestness and heart but also formulaic and over eager to win people over to a side they may be a bit iffy on. It bothers me to say this cause I once loved both films, but it’s the “Driving Miss Daisy” of homosexuality.

Hanks comes off as sincere as Atticus Finch though, playing lawyer Andrew Beckett. He is a gay man trying to cover both that and the fact he has the virus from his law firm. He’s been so successful that they promote him to Senior Associate. Then another lawyer notices a lesion on his forehead, and days later, Beckett is unceremoniously fired.

Beckett is determined to prove wrongful termination, but few lawyers will take his case. With no place else to turn he goes to Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), an ambulance chaser at best and former rival. At first, even he fears a virus he doesn’t understand and is more than proud of his bigoted attitude toward gays.


The screenplay by Ron Nyswaner paints in broad strokes though. The two men eventually find some common ground- the law- and that becomes a stepping off point to friendship. One would think his screenplay also had more intimate scenes regarding Beckett and his boyfriend, but Antonio Banderas is such an afterthought in the movie it probably would have been better if Demme just cut him out completely.

Hanks is a wonder, going through the first half with genuine unease at the idea of being discovered, and a lot of the second bravely trying to win one more case, even as he’s already lost the battle to the virus. We don’t just see the humanity of gay people in him, but also the even more impossible task of seeing humanity in a lawyer. He’s just that humble.

Washington is almost equally good, carrying his prejudices with him even as he decides to go through this journey of understanding. Is it easy to tell gay from straight? Are they weirdos who just want to get into his pants? And do they dress up like their mothers? These are questions of the 90’s, I guess, and Washington is basically standing in for “us”, going through them.

The two actors have one hell of a scene together: the one where Hanks breaks down opera singer Maria Callas’ “La Mamma Morta”, passionately leading us down a path while Demme and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto supply fiery intensity to it, all while Washington looks on, forever changed. It’s a scene about love is love, and the sentiment has never been so clearly and beautifully stated.


Beyond these two characters, Demme also does fantastic work at showing the alienation that people with the virus go through. What it does to the body is shown in devastating detail, but the panic it causes also feels very real, and very lonely. The scene where Andy is fired, a tight close up on his face, is devastating for all different reasons.

But for all the good this movie does, the courtroom stuff manages to be the least interesting part of the film. The defendants are a contemptible bunch, portrayed as bigoted old white guys who talk in private of all the deviancy and filth they think comes with gay life.

That Andy spends much of the last half hour on his last legs, suffering through testimony and then collapsing also feels like old-fashioned Hollywood manipulation. How could we not care for him and hate them? Mary Steenburgen, playing lawyer for the defendants, also separates herself just in time from their evil heartlessness by uttering the phrase “I hate this case”, in a scene that hilariously allows for no gray areas here.

How could there be with Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young providing haunting ballads to the fallen, the fighters, and the tragedy that it even took so long for people to finally give a shit. “Philadelphia”, no doubt, comes with a lot of humanity and passion to it; it’s a tear-jerker to be sure, but it’s also one that follows a certain structure that feels more palatable than interesting.