You'd think a film with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington would be a pretty good one, right? Well, I know there are plenty of people who hate Tom Hanks, and I was one of them for a long time. Philadephia was actually why I hated Tom Hanks.

People are right to call this movie propagandistic, although several of the commenters below are glaring homophobes (what many others don't realize is that propaganda is important, and that most people believe what they believe through propaganda).

What I have not seen anyone mention is how terribly homophobic this movie is. I can't believe intelligent people like Jason Robards, Tom Hanks, and Denzel Washington would ever lend their names to Philadelphia, let alone accept an Oscar because of it. I'm talking about two scenes in particular: the scene where we see Tom Hanks contract AIDS (by having sex in a gay porno theater with the man who is sitting next to him) and by having Hanks's character bring Washington to a homosexual party where everyone is dressed in drag. Philadelphia is basically telling the majority of its viewers that, while homosexuals may deserve rights, they are still icky people who do weird things to get their kicks.