Philadelphia

I really enjoyed this movie. It was interesting to see how the characters interacted with each other, especially Joe and Andrew. Since the beginning of the movie Joe strongly states his hatred towards homosexuals and his fear of contracting AIDs over a simple hand shake with Andrew and with Andrew just being in the same room as him. When I saw this scene Joe’s ignorance angered me and then he went as far as going to see a doctor that same afternoon and although the doctor told him he could only contract AIDS through bodily fluids he still wasn’t convinced. Though, when the doctor went to perform a HIV test he refused and left the office. If he was so concerned about contracting the disease why wouldn’t he want to get tested, its as if he is happier living in ignorance and not knowing. Because, if god forbid he did have something he would have to face reality and deal with it, though by not knowing he is keeping it at bay which is the same thing he likes to do with homosexuals and those who have AIDS. Even though Joe was homophobic he later decides to defend Andrew in court, this was very interesting to me and I still do not completely understand why a character who is supposed to be homophobic decided to defend an openly gay man, Joe stated his reasoning to be because the law had been broken and it doesn’t matter how he feels towards gays but if the law is broken justice must be served for anyone. This to me was an admirable quality for the character that he is willing to set aside his personal feelings in order to provide what he knows is justice. I never once really thought of people who are infected with HIV/AIDS to be discriminated against because of their illness. I think the main reason why people are so quick to discriminate is because people aren’t properly educated on the illness and how exactly it can be contracted, I do believe that in today’s society many more people are knowledgeable about this issue but I’m sure there are still gaps. I found it