History Film / Philadelphia

* CourtroomAntics:
** Joe has a couple of these in his toolbox, such as questioning the defendants' sexual orientation.
** {{Discussed|Trope}} by Joe in the beginning of the trial, when he tells the jury: "Forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies. There's not going to be any last-minute [[SurpriseWitness surprise witnesses]], nobody is going to break down on the stand with a [[ThePerryMasonMethod tearful confession]]."

* [[IllGirl Ill Man]]: Andy Beckett is dying of AIDS.

* CatchPhrase: Joe: "Explain it to me like I'm a six-year old".

* FanDisservice: Andrew opening his shirt to show the jury his sores.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: A group of them, based on the infamous real-life Westboro Baptist Church, can be seen protesting on the courthouse steps during Andy's trial. WBC leader and famed asshole Fred Phelps would later call the movie his favorite comedy.

* BasedOnATrueStory: The case is very similar to two real-life stories. The first one was that of Geoffrey Bowers, who sued Baker McKenzie for wrongful dismissal after they fired him for getting [=AIDS=], even though he had a satisfactory evaluation two months prior to getting sick; the case took six years to be solved, in favour of Bowers, who actually died two months into the trial, to the tune of $500,000 in compensatory damages and the back pay he would have earned had he remained employed. Clarence Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was also fired for having [=AIDS=], sued Hyatt and won just before his death.

* AdultFear: Part of the reason Charles Wheeler and the others were so upset about Andy having AIDS (and hiding it) was because he went to their company picnics and they feel paranoid he could have gotten blood on their kids or something.

* BaldOfAwesome: The Jury foreman, once he turns out to be GoodAllAlong.

* AmbiguousInnocence: Andy's former assistant, who seemed genuinely confused and panicked when calling him about the missing file that was later used as a pretext to fire him, but who Joe insinuates may have helped hide that file, and whose testimony is mostly against Andy.

* WhamShot: Andrew's sudden collapse in the middle of the trial. Also, Andrew showing the court the lesions on his chest at the film's climax.
* YourCheatingHeart: It's revealed in the trial that Andy had anonymous sex with another man at a pornographic club. While he was still living with Miguel.

''Philadelphia'' is notable as one of the first Hollywood movies with a large-scale distribution to bring up the subject of AIDS. It won two UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s: Tom Hanks' first for Best Actor in a Leading Role (he won another one year later for playing the title role in ''Film/ForrestGump''), and Music/BruceSpringsteen for Best Original Song ("Streets of Philadelphia"). It was notably Hanks' first successful dramatic role (following ''Film/NothingInCommon'' and ''Film/EveryTimeWeSayGoodbye'', both flops), resulting in a major career shift from comedies to drama and [[TomHanksSyndrome earning its own trope]].

Not to be confused with ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory'', ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaExperiment'', or with ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia''.

* AdultFear: Part of the reason Charles Wheeler and the others were so upset about Andy having AID's (and hiding it) was because he went to their company picnics and they feel paranoid he could have gotten blood on their kids or something.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Just count the babies at that funeral …

* GoodAllAlong: During the proceedings, the head juror is shown repeatedly nodding his head and smiling when the lawyers for the firm Andy is suing discuss how his dismissal was due to poor performance, not AIDS, or about how his condition had nothing to do with their decision. You think all along that he's clearly in their corner and Andy's case has no chance. When the jury sequesters, however, he immediately points out the flaws in their defense (using an excellent military analogy) and makes the rest of the jury see how all their arguments against Andy is basically smooth-sounding bullshit. If you watch the movie again after that, it's plain he sees through their crap from the git-go and is amused at how hard they're trying to weasel out of it.

** That woman herself defies this though when testifying about how Walter Kenton would have recognized Andy's AIDS scabs, stating that she just considers both herself and Andy to just be victims trying to survive.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Many of the old men at Andy's firm are okay with doing stuff like skinny-dipping together in their gentleman's club pool but the moment their golden-boy junior lawyer admits he's gay they treat him like a subhuman and fire him on trumped up immorality charges.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Joe Miller is shown to be homophobic and believes in some of the stereotypes regarding gays (i.e. the conversation with his wife). He even initially disagreed to help Andy because of this prejudice. However, Miller does agree to help Andy because he witnessed Andy going through discrimination. [[CharacterDevelopment And begins to see the error of his ways during and after the trial]].

** Arguably this plays into the plot, as Andy exhibited no obvious or stereotypical signs of being gay to his bosses, so for the longest time they never suspected a thing.

** That woman herself defies this though when testifying about how Walter Kenton would have recognized Andy's AID's scabs, stating that she just considers both herself and Andy to just be victims trying to survive.

''Philadelphia'' is notable as one of the first Hollywood movies with a large-scale distribution to bring up the subject of AIDS, as well as Tom Hanks' first non-comedic role, a practice he's continued enough to [[TomHanksSyndrome earn its own trope]][[note]] Although if we really want to get technical, ''Film/NothingInCommon'' and ''Film/EveryTimeWeSayGoodbye'' were Tom's two earliest ''attempts'' at doing dramatic films. However, he would go back to starring in comedies until he did ''Philadelphia'[[/note]]. It won two UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s: Tom Hanks' first for Best Actor in a Leading Role (he won another one year later for playing the title role in ''Film/ForrestGump''), and Music/BruceSpringsteen for Best Original Song ("Streets of Philadelphia").

** {{Discussed|Trope}} by Joe in the beginning of the trial, when he tells the jury: "Forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies. There's not going to be any last-minute surprise witnesses, nobody is going to break down on the stand with a tearful confession."

* CourtroomAntics: Joe has a couple of these in his toolbox, such as questioning the defendants' sexual orientation,

''Philadelphia'' is notable as one of the first Hollywood movies with a large-scale distribution to bring up the subject of AIDS, as well as Tom Hanks' first non-comedic role, a practice he's continued enough to [[TomHanksSyndrome earn its own trope]][[note]] Although if we really want to get technical, ''Film/NothingInCommon'' and ''Film/EveryTimeWeSayGoodbye'' were Tom's two earliest ''attempts'' at doing dramatic films. However, he would go back to starring in comedies until he did ''Philadelphia'' [[/note]]. It won two UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s: Tom Hanks' first for Best Actor in a Leading Role (he won another one year later for playing the title role in ''Film/ForrestGump''), and Music/BruceSpringsteen for Best Original Song ("Streets of Philadelphia").

''Philadelphia'' is notable as one of the first Hollywood movies with a large-scale distribution to bring up the subject of AIDS, as well as Tom Hanks' first non-comedic role, a practice he's continued enough to [[TomHanksSyndrome earn its own trope]][[note]] Although if we really want to get technical, ''Film/EveryTimeWeSayGoodbye'' was Tom's first ''attempt'' at doing a dramatic film, although he would go back to starring in comedies until he did ''Philadelphia'' [[/note]]. It won two UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s: Tom Hanks' first for Best Actor in a Leading Role (he won another one year later for playing the title role in ''Film/ForrestGump''), and Music/BruceSpringsteen for Best Original Song ("Streets of Philadelphia").

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Compare the fluidity of the gay characters' scenes to the [[HandWave hand waved]] dialogue for the straight characters, who have no lives beyond baseball and hating gays.

* CampGay: Several of the guests during the party that Andrew and Miguel hold. Quentin Crisp, who is a real-life example of a Camp Gay, also makes an appearance, though doesn't have any dialogue. However, Andrew also shows shades of this in a scene where he puts on opera music and explains it for Joe. (The scene comes very late in the film and is more about [[http://operawire.com/opera-meets-film-analyzing-the-transcendent-power-of-the-maria-callas-scene-from-jonathan-demmes-philadelphia/ opera as a passionate expression of universal emotion]]: it's about a woman devastated by tragedy, who feels redeemed by love and realizes that God is Love.)

* CampGay: Several of the guests during the party that Andrew and Miguel hold. Quentin Crisp, who is a real-life example of a Camp Gay, also makes an appearance, though doesn't have any dialogue. However, Andrew also shows shades of this in a scene where he puts on opera music and explains it for Joe. (The scene comes very late in the film and is more about opera as a passionate expression of universal emotion: it's about a woman devastated by tragedy, who feels redeemed by love and realizes that God is Love.)

* LoveRedeems: The theme of Maria Callas' aria. Joe takes it to heart.