“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” - Winston Churchill
Today, 1st of December, is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “Lead – Empower – Deliver.” Designating leadership as the theme provides an opportunity to highlight both political leadership and celebrate leadership that has been witnessed at all levels of society. It is only through effective leadership that empowerment of victims can occur and delivery of solutions to this widespread world problem can be attempted. In first world countries HIV infection has disappeared from the headlines as more effective treatments for the disease became available in 1996 with the synthesis of protease inhibitors. Such drugs, on the other hand, are not readily available to AIDS sufferers in developing countries, allowing AIDS to reach alarming rates there.
Acknowledging the significance of World AIDS Day internationally, my Movie Monday review is dedicated to a classic 1993 film, Jonathan Demme’s “Philadelphia”. At the time it was released, this film was a landmark in the fight against the social marginalisation that AIDS-affected people had to cope with during a time that treatments did little to curb the fatal inevitability of the disease. The film was a powerful exposé of mindless prejudice, irrational fear fired by misinformation and the triumph of reason and the meting out of natural justice for our fellow human beings in need.
The film concerns Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer infected with HIV and who is starting to develop symptoms of AIDS. He is fired from his conservative law firm when it becomes known he has AIDS as they fear they may contract the disease from him. Andrew sues his former law firm with the help of Joe Miller, a homophobic lawyer. A court battle ensues, and during its course Miller sees that Beckett is no different than anyone else who has been unjustly treated. He manages to control his homophobia and manages to help Beckett fight for his cause.
The film has several high points as well as a powerful and gripping story. Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett and Denzel Washington as Joe Miller give performances that are a recital of top class acting. Tom Hanks rightly won the Oscar for Best Male Lead in 1994 for this film. The other Oscar went to Bruce Springsteen’s song “Streets of Philadelphia” for the Best Song and Original Music. The direction by Demme is faultless and the gritty, dark theme is brought into amazing chiaroscuro by the inspired cinematography of Tak Fujimoto. In fact, it is very hard to fault this film, which creates a tremendous tour de force all in support of basic human rights.
World AIDS Day gives us the opportunity to reflect on a variety of issues that beset the world in these early years of the 21st century. The fragility of our planet as we tackle the idea of climate change on a global level, drives home the message of our own species’ fragility. We are our own worst enemies as we live our life spending our energy on mindless hate. How easy it is to stick together in tightly knit little cliques, clans, castes, conclaves, subgroups and hate everyone else different from us. How easy it is to attack with fervour anyone who does not resemble us in terms of sexual preference, politics, ideology, religion, race. How easy it is to victimise the weak and the dispossessed…
HIV is still with us today, despite the billions of dollars spent of research. Prejudice is still rife, social stigmatization of minorities still occurs. Religious hatred still inspires violence of frightening proportions. Differences in ideology still motivate acts of sickening terrorism as the recent events in India exemplify. We carry on for centuries, blissfully unaware of the germination of the seeds of our destruction. We must shake ourselves and awake from this stupefying slumber that is causing us to repeat mistake after mistake…
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