Immunodeficiency Syndrome In The Film Philadelphia

“I am going to beat it... Life is going to go on for me and I’m going to be a happy man” (Gutman 42). On November 7, 1991 Magic Johnson announced he had human immunodeficiency virus or HIV (Healthline). This disease has cost people their lives and people's lives are changed from it.

“How to Survive a Plague” is a documentary movie which depicts the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the efforts of ACT UP and other groups. ACT UP, founded in March 1987, is an advocacy group which supports legislation and medical research and treatment of AIDS-victims. The film used archived footage of news coverage, interviews, protests, meetings, and conferences to chronicle the struggles of AIDS activists from the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City. It focused on the efforts of these activists to obtain meaningful responses from medical

Philadelphia shows how difficult it can sometimes be for two separate cultures to mesh together. In this case, the two cultures are not racial or ethnic but social. The main character, as explained in the synopsis above, is gay (micro culture) and the secondary character is slightly homophobic and most definitely straight (macro culture). Andy Beckett (our main character) is in a relationship with a man named Miguel and while it is unclear if the HIV he has contracted is directly related to this

A Closer Walk is a film made by Robert Bilheimer, and it looks into the effects of AIDS on all those infected by the virus of HIV/AIDs all throughout the world. He focuses on those who are more likely to become infected by the virus woman, children, individuals in Africa and India and then he also talks about drug users in Ukraine and how more and more individuals are getting sick because they are sharing needles. The portion I found most intriguing was how these woman and children who are sick are the poorest of the poor are they are a minority such as the African American population in America. They cannot receive treatment because no one will give it to them unless someone else in an industrialized country pays for the treatment. Olivia

Throughout the Age of AIDS film many topics that were related to AIDS were brought up that I did not know anything about before. I did not know that there could so many strings attached to a disease and have such an influence in people’s lives whether it was negative or positive.

In the film, “Age of AIDS”, there were several scenes that were quite impactful. In my opinion, the three most powerful scenes in the documentary film were: President Ronald Reagan‘s speech about transmitting HIV (1a), William Dodge triple cocktail trail (1b) and Bill Clinton’s handshake with HIV positive man in the Chinese conference (1c). These sections in the documentary were instrumental in conveying a compelling story about the effects of AIDS.

Opposes and seeks solutions against the discrimination of people with AIDs, finding associations to help this

I agree with Conor that one thing that stood out from Farmer’s article was that he said all human beings are not treated equally. People are avoided due to their race, gender, religion and even their health. It was not fair that the man was fired from work because he had AIDs and people were scolding him for his condition. This incident reminded me of the movie A Closer walk. In the movie Olivia’s relatives stopped coming to her house because her mother had AIDs. Nobody was willing to take care of her mother. If we kick people out of work and stop caring for them just because of their illness then how are they going to take care of their families? I think before saying something bad about someone else, a person should think that they can have

With an increasing in life expectancy from the medication comes the increase in quality of life according to the documentary. In a medium close up shot the documentary introduces a Bwalya Margaret Liteta an 11-year-old girl living with HIV/AIDS. She speaks about how she loves school but is unable to attend and or see her friends due to her illness. This is done to show how HIV/AIDS also affects the lives child and without an education this little girl will be stuck in the cycle of poverty. Bwalya is later interviewed post ARV looking health and playing with her friends. This shows the audience that with ART the quality of life for this little girl has improved for she is able to play with her friends and get an education. They also interview Concillia Muhau who speaks on her state before and after ART, “The way I was feeling in May, it was like I was already dead…there was nothing that I could do for myself. I could not feed myself properly, I wasn’t able to do anything for my daughter” (The Lazarus Effect 2010, 14:11). While speaking on her state pre-treatment the documentary used cutaway shot of someone sitting next to her handing her her purse. This was done to show the reality of what she was saying. Live with HIV/AIDS and not on medication Concillia was unable to take care of her daughter let alone herself and therefore had reply on others. But post ARV everything changed. “…And after I started my medication, it was like I was being resurrected from the bed I was

Fisher’s speech was very moving and captivated the audience. She used personal stories and factual evidence to make the audience aware that HIV/AIDS

To every day people that walked by and did not know the man, or were not close to the person saw him as a regular lawyer. What people did not know was the man had contracted HIV, which lead to the development of AIDS. The main character in the movie is Andrew Beckett who continues to work, even after being warned that working long hours would speed up the process of AIDS. Andrew kept working there without telling people that he has the disease in the first place. A partner in the firm notices that lesion on his skin and tells the other partners. This leads to sabotage on one of Andrew’s cases by the partners giving them reason to dismiss Andrew from the firm. Andrew sued his law firm for wrongful termination. With court in session it brought a lot of insecurities about the way people felt about gay people. In the end Andrew ended up winning the case, and the firm was held guilty. Unlike in criminal court where the defendant is punished with jail and plus or money. A civil case usually just involves money. Andrew was rewarded a settlement of 4.5 million from the firm. Andrew goes sick to even worse. At the end of the movie Andrew dies, but ends on a sad high note (IMDb). The movie plays a strong role in the way people looked at HIV or even new disease back in the 1980’ s-90 and even further before this became an

2. She uses ethos and makes it more than just herself. She includes the children who are suffering from the disease, the lonely gay men who have no family to support them, and the millions of others who were considered not at risk but are now battling AIDS.

Harvey Milk is outraged by this action from the police that he stands on a makeshift stage outside his shop and uses a megaphone to address to the people about what he had seen and what needs to be done about it. People start to listen to Harvey Milk, and his boyfriend Scott Smith inspires him to run to be a supervisor. The scene where the police are abusing the gay people is meaningful because if that hadn’t had happened, Scott nor Harvey would have had the courage to stand up for what they believe in. The movie itself has a lot of meaning, mainly because it was an actual event is U.S history and it happened in the Bay Area. Because of this event it allowed many gay people to come out in a way.

Moral Issues in Philadelphia Film The movie Philadelphia was released in 1993,which was based on a true story. It was one of the first movie that confronted the medical, political, discriminating, and social issues of AIDS. In the movie, Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) a talented lawyer with a great reputation at a Philadelphia law firm. Andrew is a homosexual that has contracted AIDS, but is afraid to tell his firm about his diagnosis.

For Marcus, this was an eye opening moment. First of all, He decided to do the right thing, and make it public that he had been diagnosed with AIDS. Secondly, he decided to become completely celibate, to stop the spread of the disease. Thirdly, he created a fund, to raise awareness of the disease and raise money to fight it. Lastly, he wanted to mend things with his one true love,