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Mon, 24 Jan 1994 20:38:44 EST |
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I recently saw Philadelphia and was troubled by it in several ways. I found it
preachy in places, falling into the Sunday night t.v. movie disease of the week
genre in that respect.
What interests me the most about the film is the way it plays with visibility
and invisibility in terms of homosexuality, AIDS, and race. I'm bothered that
what finally marks Tom Hanks as a wronged--sorry: what finally marks Hanks'
charact
er as a gay man with AIDS is the visual lesions on his body which he bears for
all to see in the courtroom. Hanks is engaged in passing throughout the film,
so these absolutely visible wounds seem even stranger in that respect. Then
there
's the matter of the near invisibility of Hanks' and his partner's relationship
as LOVERS. (I need to see the film agagain to verify my friend's comment that
the only time they kiss on the mouth is a quick peck in the hospital which is
sho
t so as to obscure the sight of their lips actually touching--we see the back of
Hanks' head?) The invisibility of their gayness I'm sure is designed to make
the characters more palatable to a largely heterosexual mass audience, and I
have
heard stories of biased people "coming round" a bit because they could
"finally" sympathize with a gay character enough to understand the pain he
experienced. But at what price?
Also, I'm interested in the way the film suggests a comparison of race bias and
bias against homosexuals: again, the question of Hanks' passing comes up:
somthing Washington's character can't do.
Hope these somewhat unformed comments make some sense.
Susan Crutchfield
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
[log in to unmask]
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