Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2069 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-05-26
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Czech
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Special Features
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital English
Dolby Digital

Synopsis
After a solid track record and a much-deserved promotion, Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a handsome, upwardly mobile Philadelphia lawyer, loses his high-paying corporate job when he starts developing full-blown AIDS. Though Andrew's firm attributes his dismissal to his supposedly poor performance, he knows otherwise, and he won't accept the firm's discrimination lying down. Andrew will do whatever is necessary to prosecute. But when nine other lawyers refuse to help him, Andrew reluctantly hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a showy, homophobic, ambulance-chasing lawyer whose first reaction to the news that Andrew has AIDS is to rush to the doctor and have himself checked. Despite Joe's fear and dislike of gays, he and Andrew discover they've got quite a bit in common, and they decide they're going to fight to the finish. The result is an emotionally potent drama that doesn't flinch from exposing the long-term effects of the disease on Beckett and his friends and family. Jonathan Demme directs and Bruce Springstein sings the title song, 'Streets of Philadelphia,' part of an Academy Award-winning score.