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Philadelphia

Philadelphia (1993)

tomatometer

86

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

87

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 158,742

My Rating

Movie Info

At the time of its release, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia was the first big-budget Hollywood film to tackle the medical, political, and social issues of AIDS. Tom Hanks, in his first Academy Award-winning performance, plays Andrew Beckett, a talented lawyer at a stodgy Philadelphia law firm. The homosexual Andrew has contracted AIDS but fears informing his firm about the disease. The firm's senior partner, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), assigns Andrew a case involving their most important

PG-13, 2 hr. 5 min.

Drama

Ron Nyswaner

Sep 9, 1997

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Philadelphia Trailer & Photos

More Trailers and Videos (1)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Philadelphia

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (11) | DVD (15)

[An] extremely well-made message picture about tolerance, justice and discrimination is pitched at mainstream audiences, befitting its position as the first major Hollywood film to directly tackle the disease.

October 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

"Philadelphia" mostly succeeds in being forceful, impassioned and moving, sometimes even rising to the full range of emotion that its subject warrants. But too often, even at its most assertive, it works in safely predictable ways.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Rita Kempley
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The story is timely and powerful, and the performances of Hanks and Washington assure that the characters will not immediately vanish into obscurity.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This AIDS courtroom drama is so pumped full of nitrous oxide, you could get your teeth drilled on it.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment (1)
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Philadelphia breaks no new dramatic ground ... And yet Philadelphia is quite a good film, on its own terms.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Moving, Oscared '90s drama fostered AIDS empathy.

December 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Heather Boerner
Common Sense Media

Safe and apolitical it may be, but Philadelphia succeeds as a deeply affecting humanist drama.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
Geoff Andrew
Time Out Source: Time Out

Wearing its heart on its sleeves, this well-intentioned but soft and compromised AIDS drama may nonetheless perform the same function that Paltoon or Schindler's List have: Change public opinion about an urgent problem.

April 21, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

The courtroom stuff is unwieldly, but everything else is brave and moving.

October 25, 2005 Comment
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

involving but badly cliched

August 26, 2005 Comment
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

The road to Philadelphia was paved with good intentions.

November 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Keith Uhlich
Slant Magazine

In the guise of piety, Philadelphia panders to a perceived straight-male majority.

November 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Keith Uhlich
Slant Magazine

Being under the PC microscope transforms Demme into the bastard offspring of Stanley Kramer and Norman Lear

October 25, 2004 Comment
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

Manages to be humorous and moving without being too preachy or heavy-handed.

January 5, 2004 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Philadelphia

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Hanks and Washington shine. This was a great movie and it came out at the right time.

June 29, 2008
jmanard52
John Manard

Super Reviewer

A brave film for its time, this movie touches the aspects of how AIDS and homosexuality as they are being viewed by the majority of the uniformed mass and weaves it all into a compelling court drama. While the great opening sequence with Bruce Springsteen's instant classic tune shows us the city of brotherly love from

June 14, 2006
ironclad1609
Jens S.

Super Reviewer

Philadelphia Quotes

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    1. Sarah Beckett: I didn't raise my children to sit at the back of the bus.
    – Submitted by Sam H (2 months ago)

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