Philadelphia

Drama

Daniel Chapman	Clinic storyteller
David Drake
Karen Finley	Dr. Gillman
Charles Glenn
Tom Hanks	Andrew Beckett
Denzel Washington	Joe Miller
Mary Steenburgen	Belinda Conine
Antonio Banderas	Miguel Alvarez
Roberta Maxwell	Judge Tate
Buzz Kilman	Crutches
Mark Sorensen Jr.	Clinic patient
Jeffrey Williamson	Tyrone

Director	Jonathan Demme
Producer	Jonathan Demme; Edward Saxon
Writer	Ron Nyswaner
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Musician	Howard Shore

Philadelphia wasn't the first movie about AIDS (it followed such worthy independent films as Parting Glances and Longtime Companion), but it was the first Hollywood studio picture to take AIDS as its primary subject. In that sense, Philadelphia is a historically important film. As such, it's worth remembering that director Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, The Silence of the Lambs) wasn't interested in preaching to the converted; he set out to make a film that would connect with a mainstream audience. And he succeeded. Philadelphia was not only a hit, it also won Oscars for Bruce Springsteen's haunting "The Streets of Philadelphia," and for Tom Hanks as the gay lawyer Andrew Beckett who is unjustly fired by his firm because he has AIDS. Denzel Washington is another lawyer (functioning as the mainstream-audience surrogate) who reluctantly takes Beckett's case and learns to overcome his misconceptions about the disease, about those who contract it, and about gay people in general. The combined warmth and humanism of Hanks and Demme were absolutely essential to making this picture a success. The cast also features Jason Robards, Antonio Banderas (as Beckett's lover), Joanne Woodward, and Robert Ridgely, and, of course, those Demme regulars Charles Napier, Tracey Walter, and Roger Corman. --Jim Emerson