Philadelphia Movie Essay

1248 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Portrayal of gays in media

Philadelphia is a powerful movie that addresses discrimination of homosexuals, especially victims of AIDs. The film focuses on Andrew “Andy” Beckett (played by Tom Hanks), an up and coming lawyer at a prominent law firm in Philadelphia. Andy is homosexual, a fact he does not divulge to the law firm partners, and is battling AIDs. When one of the law partners recognizes a tell-tale AIDS lesion on Andy, Andy’s work is sabotaged via a misplaced document that is later found without any consequences, however Andy is fired over the incident. Andy believes that he has been fired due to his HIV status and peruses a discrimination suit against his former law firm. Attempting to find an attorney to represent him proves to be difficult. Andy approaches Joe Miller (played by Denzel Washington) to represent him, however Joe refuses to represent Andy based on his on fears of homosexuality and HIV. A few weeks later Joe encounters Andy at the library where Andy is searching precedent rulings regarding AIDs discrimination cases. Joe watches from a far as Andy is maltreated by the librarian and fellow patrons when it is …show more content…

The scene that follows is immensely powerful, La Mamma Morta begins to play on the stereo, Andy turns up the volume and begins to translate the words to Joe; ‘I bring sorrow to those that love me...Heaven is in my eyes… Into heaven! Ah! am love, I am love.” At the end of this scene it is clear that Andy is coming to terms with his own impending death; at the end of the movie Andy states he is ready to go. Joe also is impacted by the thoughts of his own immortality and the ones he loves; Joe goes home, takes his sleeping infant daughter out of her crib, hugs her tells her he loves her, tenderly tucks he back in and goes to his sleeping wife, climbs in to bed without undressing, hugs and kisses, lying awake, presumably thinking of

Show More
Related

  • Conrack Movie Essay

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    This brief essay examines racism in the 1974 motion picture Conrack. The movie is an adaptation of Pat Conroy's autobiography, The Water Is Wide. The main character, Conrack, a young white male teacher portrayed by Jon Voight, is assigned to teach students from poor black families on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. The small community has little contact with the outside world and develops its own language. He finds the students essentially illiterate and their education neglected by state authorities. Poverty and their race cause neglect of their educational needs. The black school principal has convinced the students they are stupid and lazy. Conroy begins teaching the students useful, essential life skills. The community has no interest in learning about anything away from the island. The community has lived in fear of a nearby river because none can swim. While trying to improve the students' level of knowledge and their enthusiasm for

    Read More

  • The Shawshank Redemtion-Red and a Tall Drink of Water

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    The new prisoners stand linked together with chains, scared to death, in front of the Warden. He says, " I believe in two things, discipline and the Bible. Here you"ll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord, your ass belongs to me. " That was the kind of attitude Andy would have to live with from now on, and this was just the beginning.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of The Shawshank Redemption

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    The creators of this movie used several effective, and often subtle, methods to illustrate the hope found in Andy and his surroundings. Andy was always portrayed as a clean-cut and well-groomed prisoner with his shirt always buttoned and his hair always combed. This self-respect was in great contrast to the other prisoners who were portrayed as dirty, stereotypical prisoners. The common prisoners also had vocabularies and grammar that were far inferior to Andy’s. The distinctions between Andy and the common prisoners showed that Andy was different, those differences were that he had hope.

    Read More

  • Suicide In Sharon Draper's Tears Of A Tiger

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    Andy loses his best friend in a car wreck after drinking and driving. This affects Andy greatly. Draper shows Andy having to go to therapy for his depression from losing Robert. The beginning of therapy sessions were not great. Andy

    Read More

  • Essay On Self-Respect In The Novel Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, Andy preserves his self-respect by fighting or defending himself from the rape squad of Shawshank Prison known as “The Sisters”.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Documentary 'Louise Theroux Law And Disorder In Philadelphia'

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stop Australia its time to act on this ice epidemic that is overtaking are country! This is something you all may have herd in the new or in the paper. This is how the media portrays dugs, but is this really happing or is the media over extracting to make it seem worse then it really is. This is where the media is bombarded us with titles like “Inside Australia’s drug epidemic: how ice is tearing our country apart” that is to make us believe things that are over the top and exaggerating on a small statistics to get a good story. There are only 7.0% of Australians aged 14 years and over have used meth/amphetamines such as ice one or more times in their life. Where cannabis has 34.8% of Australians aged 14 years

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

    2309 Words  | 5 Pages

    When discussing the notion that “Love can often lead to the creation of an ‘Outsider’." there are cases in our literary examples that would agree with the statement, and some that would not. Outsiders in Much Ado About Nothing, Pride and Prejudice and A Streetcar Named Desire are created by both love and other themes, whether it be class, power, disinterest or a scandal.

    Read More

  • The Midlife Crises in Death of a Salesman, Alfred J. Prufrock, and American Beauty

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    On the surface, Willy and Lester have all the elements of settled, prosaic lives shaped from the pattern of the "American Dream": large homes in middle- or upper-class neighborhoods, successful children, loving wives. But under this facade, both share a need that has devastated men and engendered distrust in their families for generations: the extra-marital affair.

    Read More

  • Redneck The Movie Essay

    433 Words  | 1 Pages

    REDNECK your typical vampire tragedy. The vampires in this comic don’t live in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains. They don’t wear long, black cloaks and hang from the ceiling. These nightwalkers wear custom made cowboy boots, watch NASCAR, eat at Food Trailers, and smoke ribs for the hell of it. Redneck is a story about bloodsuckers that wear trucker hats and listen to bluegrass.

    Read More

  • Tears Of A Tiger by Sharon Draper

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    Andy goes to psychologist, Dr. Carrothers, to discuss his depression about Rob's death. He does not think he needs to be there because he is fine in school and he is fine at home. Andy talks about why the accident is his fault. He realizes he needs help with his depression and wants to come back for another visit to discuss what is going...

    Read More

  • Movie Analysis: American History X

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.

    Read More

  • Philadelphia Movie Symbolism

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington depicts two lawyers fighting for the symbolic loss of the one of the lawyers who has contracted AIDS in the 1990s. Tom Hanks plays as Andrew Beckett, who successful made partner in upscale firm is fired because of his virus. The types of losses portrayed in this film are normal and complicated grief due to symbolic loss and actual loss due to death.

    Read More

  • Last Of The Mohicans Movie Essay

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1992, the movie The Last of the Mohicans was produced as a representation of the French and Indian war with a love story and some exaggerated scenes of violence among the Native Americans and Englishmen and women. The main actors in this film include: Daniel Day Lewis as Hawkeye, Wes Studi as Magua, Eric Schweig as Uncas, and Steven Waddington as Major Duncan, while the only main actress is Madeleine Stowe as Cora Munroe. These characters all contribute their own important role to the plot. Whereas, Hawkeye is the adopted brother of Uncas, who is the last of the Mohicans capable of continuing the tribe. He resembles a white man under influence of good attributes from the “savages” and the advantages of the white man.

    Read More

  • Amistad Movie Essay

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    One ironic things about this movie is that there is no real happy ending. It is true that the Amistad African people get to go home, but go home to what? Cinque family is gone when he comes back. Even though he escaped getting put into slavery, there was a strong possibility that his wife and kids did get enslaved. He went back to a home that was not a home anymore.

    Read More

  • The Wolf Of Wall Street Movie Analysis Essay

    1301 Words  | 3 Pages

    This movie starts off as Jordan Belfort, the main character in the movie, losing his job as a stockbroker in Wall Street. After losing his job, he goes and gets a job in a Long Island brokerage room. In the brokerage room, he sells penny stocks. Thanks to him being aggressive in his selling skills, he was able to make a profit. With the new income, he gives his wife a bracelet and she asked him why doesn’t he go after the people that can afford to lose money, not the middle-class people or lower income people. That is when he gets the idea to get a lot of young people and train them to become the best stock brokers.

    Read More

More about Philadelphia Movie Essay

Open Document