Streets of Philadelphia

Streets of Philadelphia

The main premise of the movie was to show the struggles of someone living with AIDS. The movie was made for all audiences that are educated on the background of the disease, and for those unaware of the struggles that one must go through when living with AIDS. I think that the most educating part of the movie was the different symptoms AIDS patients must deal with, and the way society thinks about them.

I feel that Andrew Beckett chose to hide his disease not because it was AIDS, but that he contracted the disease from another male, thus making him a homosexual. After hearing his co-workers make jokes about homosexuals, he felt that there was no way he could ever tell them. Once he began having physical symptoms he desperately tried to cover them up, but it was uncontrollable.

I feel that the reason for "losing the document" was to give a reason to fire Andrew. It was a dirty way to terminate a disabled employee. They promoted Andrew because he was an exceptional employee, one of their stars, once the partners saw the lesion he made sure the important document was "misplaced." This then prompted the firing of Andrew, and I thought it was interesting to see how far away he sat during his meeting when he learned he was getting fired. They chose not to settle because they felt it shows guilt, and they did not want him around; plus being lawyers themselves, thought they would win.

The reason that Andrew wanted to fight the law firm so much was because he loved his work so much that he wanted was fair. He knew that he was extremely good at his profession and wanted to continue regardless of his disability. He knew that it was wrong for him to be terminated, because he studied the law and was the best lawyer in the firm.

Joe's opinion on homosexuals was that it was completely wrong and disgusting. Joe had numerous times throughout the movie where he showed this prejudice. I think his opinion of homosexuals was what he has been taught, like he said about queers when you are young. I think that this is really going on, and that it is the opinion of many young kids in elementary school. As you grow up you understand that this is not true, and this is what happened with Denzel, although it did take him a while. Even during the trial in the convenience store he was furious a man would try to come onto him. As the movie was