费城故事英文影评

Name: 倪天一

Class: 酒管131

Dept.: 酒店管理学院

Film Review of Philadelphia

Philadelphia was directed in 1993 when AIDS first became a common cause of death. It told us a story about how an AIDS patientcalled Andrew fought for his own rights with help of his lawyer Joe. Andrew Beckett was played by Tom Hanks, and Joe was played by Denzel Washington.

The story happened in Philadelphia, where the United States Declaration of Independence was born. At the very beginning of the film, the director seemed to try to give us an impression of tolerance, which differed from the sad story very much. Andrew was fired for the reason he did something badly wrong during his work after one of his colleagues found that he had AIDS,. Since Andrew knew the real reason, he decided to charge against his past bosses.

When Joe and Andrew first met each other, they sat side by side, arguing about a case, which looked normal and humorous. Before long Andrew asked for Joe’s aids, telling Joe that he got AIDS. When Joe heard that news, he soon kept Andrew away and went to see his doctor for checking whether he would catch HIV later. The scene showed a conflict between people with and without AIDS. We cannot blame Joe much since we could do the same thing under the same circumstances. First Joe tended to turn his back on Andrew, but he was determined to help

Andrew because of sympathy and belief in law and equality. As a man who opposed homosexuality, Joe did not understand Andrew until he attended a party for gays, seeing Andrew dancing with his partner. I think at that moment Joe suddenly understood the love between two men, which actually was the same as love between women and men. They sat together shoulder by shoulder again just like the first meet, which meant their hearts and souls became closer and closer.

At the end of the film, Andrew was too ill to attend the court. Joe eventually won before Andrew died, but he could only tell him the good news right beside his sickbed. The ending was not like those of typical Hollywood films; it was not such a kind of happy ending. However, through it we can still see hope and warmth.

Philadelphia was seen as a symbol that marks the first time that Hollywood has risked a big-budget film on AIDS and homosexuals. The film may attract people’s attention to AIDS, homosexuality as well as humanism. When some people tend to look down upon AIDS patients, this film may be an alarming bell.