Philadelphia: The Movie

Philadelphia: The Movie

Philadelphia is a movie starring Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and Antonio Banderas. Tom Hanks plays a homosexual lawyer by the name of Andrew Beckett that contracts the A.I.D.S. disease from his homosexual activities. Andrew works for a firm when he discovers he has the disease. Coincidently, the firm gives him a major account to work on. Due to his illness, he becomes more and more bed ridden, forcing him to work at home and bring in his work to the office late at night. A major piece of the account "mysteriously" disappears and Andrew is fired. Andrew believes, however, that he was fired because of his homosexuality and his disease. Therefore, he searches diligently to find a lawyer that will represent his malpractice case.

After a tiring search, Andrew finds Denzel Washington and presents his case before him. Denzel plays a homophobic lawyer, yet he sees opportunity in Andrew's case so he takes it. He argues that the company was aware of Andrew's personal lifestyle and did not accept it, resulting in his firing. He goes through extensive lengths to prove that his boss discriminated against homosexuals. Nevertheless, Denzel befriends Andrew and begins to accept his homosexuality.

The climax of this movie occurred when Andrew testified in court and fainted. With sympathy on Denzel's side, he continues with the case proving that the company fired Andrew based on his lifestyle and not his neglect to the company.

The company acted in a very unethical manner in this movie. Andrew's boss had a personal issue with homosexuals and brought his attitude with him to his place of work. When he discovered that Andrew was what he despised, he fired him. The situation could have been handled in a better manner, but it wasn't. The boss's unethical manner resulted in millions for the firm in a malpractice lawsuit.