The script was scorned as agit-prop and the characterisations as one-dimensional. Demme was scolded for leaving on the cutting-room floor the scene in which Hanks and Antonio Banderas, who plays his longtime companion, kiss on the mouth. Philadelphia was dismissed as “too packaged” (as if films costing over $25 million weren’t always produced with an eye on demographics). Even the critics who were supportive overlooked most of what is interesting in the film. Most reviews were not only tepid, they were wildly off the mark. If Philadelphia had relied on the critics to bring audiences into the cinemas, it would have bombed in a week. It is standard wisdom within the industry that ‘difficult’ films – and the presence of two major stars notwithstanding, a film about Aids is difficult – are review-driven. In that sense, it has been 13 years in the making and bears the burden of all the films that have not preceded it. Nothing if not high concept, Philadelphia, directed by Jonathan Demme, is the first major Hollywood movie to deal with Aids since the disease was first recognised in the US in 1981. A gay, white, corporate lawyer ( Tom Hanks), who is fired from his white-shoe firm when his bosses discover he has Aids, hires a homophobic, black, storefront lawyer ( Denzel Washington) to defend him in the discrimination suit he brings against his former employer.
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