Philadelphia

Production year: 1993

Drama PG-13   Running time: 2:05 

IMDB rating:   7.7     Aspect: Wide;  Languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese;  Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Thai;  Audio: DD 5.1

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.

Director

Features

Audio commentary
Cast biographies/profiles/filmographies
Deleted/extended scenes
Featurettes/Behind-The-Scenes/Documentaries
Interviews
Trailers/TV spots

Special features

Commentary with Director Jonathan Demme and Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner
"People Like Us: Making Philadelphia" - The cast and crew of Jonathan Demme's groundbreaking Philadelphia discuss the inspiration for and creation of the first Hollywood studio film about AIDS
The critically acclaimed documentary "One Foot on a Banana Peel, the Other Foot in the Grave"
Music video for the Academy Award-winning original song, ìStreets of Philadelphian" performed by Bruce Springsteen
Courthouse Protest Footage and Interviews
Joe Miller's Macready & Shilts Legal Services TV spot
Original theatrical release featurette
Interviews with Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Mary Steenburgen
Philadelphia