(on muscled gays) Think about it, those guys pumpin up together to be macho and faggot all at the same time. I can’t stand that shit!
(talking about the Declaration of Independence) I don’t recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it said all men are created equal.
–Excellent work, Counselor. I thank you.
–It was great working with you, Counselor.
…so explain it to me like I’m a 3 year old
1)’The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are able to perform the duties required by their employment. Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of HIV and AIDS discrimination…’ 2)Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes. But because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the actual, physical one. 1)’This is the essence of discrimination: formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits but, rather, on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics.
1)And how many weeks at a time would you be out to sea, without stopping at port? 2)Anywhere from two weeks, to several months. 1)Any women on board? 2)Not when I was in the Navy. 1)So during those long voyages, months at a time, out to sea, no women in sight, a hundred, hardworking, robust, young men, in the prime of their life, at the peak of their natural appetites, desires, their god- given, hormonal instincts… Anything going on? 2)Going on… like…? 1)Like… two sailors playing flippy flop?
1)Andy. Before we begin, I’d just like to say: everyone in this room is your friend 2)I know that Charles.
1)At least we agree on one thing. 2)What’s that? 1)Tutti Fruittis make me sick too.
1)Do you have any lesions on any part of your body, at this time, that resemble the lesions that were on your face at the time you were fired? 2)Yes. On my tor..torso. 1)If it please the court, I’d like to ask Mr. Beckett to remove his shirt, so that the jury can have an accurate idea of what we’re talking about. 3)We object, Your Honor. It would unfairly influence the jury. 1)Your Honor, if Mr. Beckett was forced by his illness to use a wheelchair, would the defense ask him to park it outside? We’re talking about AIDS, we’re talking about lesions. Let’s see what we’re talking about.
1)Do you see this as a gay rights issue? 2)I’m not political. I just want for being fired. 1)But you are gay, aren’t you? 2)I don’t see how that’s any of your business… but yes, I am.
1)Do you take risks? 2)In my work? Yes. Calculated risks. You have to.
1)Don’t you think this color’s a little… orange for me? 2)Tahitian Bronze works best on lesions. 3)Think of it as the ‘I just backfrom Aruba’ look.
1)Excuse me, Charles. With all due respect… this is… preposterous! 2)Oh, you’re right, Beckett, you don’t have an attitude problem! 3)Take it easy, Walter. 1)If you’d lost confidence in me,then why did you give me the Hyline account?
1)Explain this to me like I’m a six year old, okay? The entire street is clear except for one small area under construction, with a huge hole that is clearly marked and blocked off, and you decide you must cross the street at this spot and this spot only. You fall into the hole and you want to sue the city for negligence? … 2)Yeah. Do I have a case? 1)Of course you have a case! Now, I want you to go with my assistant, Iris, and fill out some forms. She’ll tell you about our fee arrangement. Any back pain since the accident? Dizziness? Nightmares? 2)Now that you mention it… 1)Tell Iris all about it.
1)Have you ever felt discriminated against, at Wyant Wheeler? 2)Well,yes. 1)In what way? 2)Well… One time, Mr. Wheeler’s secretary, Lydia, told me Mr. Wheeler had a problem with my earrings. 1)Your earrings? 2)Apparently, Mr. Wheeler felt they were too… ‘ethnic’ is the word she used. She said he would like it if I wore something smaller, less garish, and… more ‘American.’ 1)What did you say? 2)I said my earrings are American. They’re African-American.
1)How do you get from one lawyer spotting a lesion, which could have been a bruise, to the partners deducing you had AIDS and basing a decision to terminate you on that conclusion? 2)Good point. 1)The partner who spotted the lesion, Walter Kenton, used to work for Benton, Myers, in D.C. There’s a paralegal there, Maria Torres. She’s had lesions on and off for three years. She says it was common knowledge around the office that her lesions were caused by AIDS. 2)They didn’t fire her? 1)No. They didn’t fire her.
1)How many gays do you know? 2)How many do you know? 1)Lots. 2)Who? 1) Karen Berman. Aunt Teresa. My cousin Tommy who lives in Rochester. Eddie Meyers from the office. Joe Cantwell, he’s one of the partners. His lover, Greg. Stanley, the guy who’s putting in our kitchen cabinets.
1)I came this close to losing it in front of everybody. 2)So what? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You have nothing to be ashamed of, okay?
1)I don’t buy it, and I don’t see a case. 2)Look. I know I have a case. If you don’t want to take it for personal reasons… 1)That’s correct. I don’t.
1)I misplaced an important complaint. That’s their story. Want to hear mine? 2)How many lawyers did you go to, before you called me? 1)Nine.
1)I was fired by Wyant Wheeler. I plan to bring a wrongful termination suit against Charles Wheeler and his partners. 2)You want to sue Wyant Wheeler,Hellerman Tetlow and Brown? 1)I’m seeking representation.
1)I’m trying to help your ‘partner.’ You’re not a member of his immediate family, I could have you removed from the ER. 2)He’s upset, he’s sorry. 3)Don’t apologize for me. 2)He’s not sorry, okay, fine. Why don’t we see what we find out from the blood work? I’ll work on getting a specimen, I’m sure hospital food could help me along. Maybe, by then, we’ll hear from my doctor, and we’ll go from there. Okay? Everybody happy?
1)I’ve made provisions in my will for some charities. Miguel will need a lawyer. I know it’s not your area… 2)I know a good probate
1)In the years you worked at Wyant Wheeler, did you ever tell Charles Wheeler you were gay? 2)No. I didn’t. 1)Can you explain why you didn’t? 2)You don’t bring your personal life into a law firm. You’re not supposed to have a personal life, really. Anyway, I did plan to tell Charles, eventually. But then, this thing happened at the tennis club…
1)In this courtroom, Mr. Miller, justice is blind. To matters of race, creed, color, religion. And sexual orientation. 2)With all due respect, Your Honor…We don’t live in this courtroom, do we? 1)No. We don’t… However, as regards this witness, I’m going to sustain the defense’s objection.
1)In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation.
2)With all due respect, your honor, we don’t live in this courtroom, do we?
1)Limestone. Messy, but innocuous. 2)Innocuous? 1)Defined by Webster’s as harmless.
1)Maybe I should start making plans, is that what you think? Start planning my memorial service? ‘Begin to prepare for the inevitable.’ 2)Maybe you should think about it.
1)Some people think you have an attitude problem, Beckett. 2)Really? Who thinks that? 1)I do.
1)This is the supplement. You’re right, there is a section on HIV related discrimination. 2)Thank you. 1)We have a private research room
available. 2)I’m fine, thanks. 1)Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a research room? 2)No. But would it make you more comfortable?
1)Wait a minute. The man was fired for incompetence, not because he has AIDS. You didn’t know he was sick, did you, Bob? 2)Holy Shit. Did you, Bob?
1)We’re waiting, meanwhile, I’d like to prepare you for a colonoscopy, so we can take a look inside. 2)Sounds delightful.
1)What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean? 2)What? 1)A good start.
1)What do you call a woman who has PMS and ESP at the same time?. 2)What? 1)A bitch who knows everything.
1)What kind of movies do they show there? 2)Gay movies. 1)Gay pornographic movies? 2)Yes. 1)Do men have sex with each otherin that theater?
1)What’s that on your forehead, pal? 2)Oh, I got whacked with a racquetball.
1)Would you like to have a drink with me? I just finished a game, I could use a beer. I don’t pick up people in drug stores every day. 2)Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… do you think… ? You think I’m…gay? 1)Well aren’t you? 2)What’s the matter with you? Do I look gay to you? 1)Do I look gay to you? 2)I ought to kick your faggoty little ass for you! 1)Take it as a compliment. Geesh. 2)Don’t you know this is exactly the kind of bullshit that makes people hate your little…faggoty ass!
1)Yeah, but Doc, isn’t it true they keep finding out new things about this disease? So you tell me, today, there’s no danger, and I go home, and I hold my baby, and six months from now I hear on the news: ‘whoops! We were wrong.’ You can carry it on your clothes, your skin, and now I’ve got to worry about my kid. What are you doing? 2)We’re going to draw blood. 1)Why are we going to do that? 2)Joe. I don’t care a whit about your private life.
1)You had one guy ‘like that?’ 2)Yeah. But we took care of him. 1)How did you do that? 2)We stuck his head in the latrine, after ten of us had used it.
1)You okay, Andy? 2)I think I need to go to the hospital.
1)You’ve testified the lesions on your face were visible to the people you worked with, correct? 2)That’s right.
1-What happened to your face?
2-I have AIDS.
1.) In this courtroom, justice is blind.
2.) With all due respect your honor, we don’t live in this courtroom.
(Andrew has told the court that his boss once made a cruel joke about gay men) Joe: And how did that make you feel? Andrew: Relieved. Joe: Relieved? Andrew: Relieved that I didn’t tell him I was gay.
(Andrews last words) Andrew: Miguel… I’m ready…
All right, look, I want you to explain this to me like I’m a six-year-old, okay?
Andrew Beckett lied to his employers, going to great efforts to conceal his disease from them. Fact. He was successful in his duplicity. The partners at Wyant Wheeler did not know Andrew Beckett had AIDS when they fired him.
Andy brought aids into our office, into our mens’ room. He brought aids to our annual cocktail family picnic. -we ought to be suing him. -Where is your compassion gentlemen?
Andy brought AIDS into our offices, into our men’s room. He brought AIDS to our annual goddamn family picnic.
Andy, the way you’ve faced this whole thing, you and Miguel, with so much courage… your mother and I have been so very impressed… I can’t imagine there is anything, that anyone could say, that would make us feel less proud of you.
Angela, we’re standing in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the birthplace of freedom, where our Founding Fathers authored the Declaration of Independence. And I don’t remember that glorious document saying ‘All straight men are created equal.’ It says, ‘All men are created equal.’
Are you gay…you know, a homo, a fairy, a fudge packer, a rump roaster, a pillow biter…ARE YOU GAY?
Aunt Teresa’s gay? That beautiful, sensuous, voluptuous woman is a lesbian?
Beckett? I’m sorry about what’s happened to you. It’s a kick in the head.
Conference call’s up. They just started the roll call. Here’s the settlement agreement, the red-lined copy’s on your desk. Need me in there?
Did you have something to do with this file being lost accidentally-on-purpose?
Every problem has a solution. Every problem… has… a… solution.
Every time he came into contact with me, he’d get this look on his face. I called it, the ‘Oh God’ expression. As in ‘Oh God, here comes that woman with AIDS.’
Fact. Andrew Beckett is dying.
Five months ago you characterized Andrew Beckett as caviar and now you’re calling him a cheeseburger.
Forget everything you’ve seen on television and in the movies.
Get everything over here as soon as you can, she’s starved. No, not the baby! Lisa! … Iris, listen: any calls I should know about? … Uh huh… Uh huh… Beckett? Who’s Andrew Beckett?
Gonna have to start looking for veins in your feet, sweetheart.
Goodbye Jews!
Goodnight angel, my sweet boy…
Has a file ever disappeared like that before? Vanished into thin air, all of a sudden, only to reappear in the nick of time?
Have you ever seen the rain?
His employers discovered his illness. And ladies and gentlemen the illness I’m referring to, is AIDS
I am oblivion
I don’t consider myself any different from anyone else with this disease. I’m not guilty; I’m not innocent. We’re just trying to survive.
I don’t wanna talk about it.
I felt, and still feel, nothing but the deepest sympathy and compassion for people like Maria, who have contracted this terrible disease through no fault of their own.
I had a blood transfusion today. I feel great.
I have a case.
I love the law. I know the law. I excel at practicing it. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.
I mean, two guys, doing the horizontal thing? I don’t get it. Don’t they get confused? ‘Is that mine? I thought it was yours.’ Hey, call me old fashioned, call me conservative… I think maybe you have to be a man to get just how nauseating that idea really is.
I’d heard of something. The gay plague, gay cancer, but… we didn’t know how you could get it, or that it could kill you.
I’m a law suit…get it?
I’m on the prowl. I need a man. Not just any man. I need a hunk. A hunk like you. How about it? Want to play sailor?
I’ve been out of the office four days. I don’t want them to think I’ve been to the beach.
If MacroSystems wins, an energetic, young company will be destroyed, five thousand Americans will be out of work.
If you’re the owner of a major league ball club, you recruit the hot rookie. And Andy was tremendously promising as a young attorney. That’s why we went after him, that’s why we hired him, and that’s why we stuck with him, year after year… waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. But it never was.
Interview every employee, support staff, associates, partners. Did any of them know Andy was sick? How did they know? Did he tell them? Did they notice something was wrong with his appearance? None of this information got to the managing partners. We know that. Make sure everyone else does too… And Beckett: I want to know everything about his personal life. Did he frequent those pathetic bars on Camac Street?
It’s that every now and again–not often, but occasionally–you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.
Jamey, I don’t have to mention, do I, that we’re up against a statute of limitations on this which runs out in… Seventy-five minutes.
Kronos Incorporated is represented by Wyant Wheeler Hellerman Tetlow and Brown. Or, more specifically, senior associate Andrew Beckett.
Let’s put it this way, your place in the future of this firm is no longer secure. We don’t think it’s fair to keep you here, where your future is limited.
Look. I’m no different from everyone else who has this disease: I’m not guilty, I’m not innocent. I’m just trying to survive.
Objection! Where has this come from?! Suddenly Counsel is attacking his own witness?
Okay. Explain to me like I’m a two year old. Didn’t you have an obligation to inform your employer you had this dreaded, deadly, infectious disease?
Remembering you are under oath, answering truthfully, can you see the lesion on your face, in this mirror, three feet away? Answering truthfully.
So you are aware of the difference between a lesion and a bruise, is that correct?
Streets of Philadelphia.
Subsiquent decisions have held that aids is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding aids exacts a social death which procedes the actual physical one.
The HIV virus can only be transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids, namely blood and semen.
The kind of person who plays three sets of tennis but doesn’t sweat.
The law says people with disabilities cannot be terminated, so long as they can perform the duties required by their position.
There won’t be any last minute, surprise witnesses… No one will break down on the stand with a tearful confession… You are presented with a simple fact: Andrew Beckett was fired. You will hear two explanations for why he was fired. Ours. And theirs… It’s up to you, to sift through layer and layer of truth, and determine for yourselves the version that sounds the most true.
There’s a possibility I won’t be around for the end of this trial.
They’re saying he wasn’t a good lawyer. He was mediocre. And the fact that they gave him the most important lawsuit they’d ever had, for one of their most important clients… they say that doesn’t prove anything, because that was just a test. To see if he’d rise to the occasion… Okay… Say I’ve got to send a pilot into enemy territory, and he’s gonna be flying a plane that cost 350 million dollars… Who am I going to put into that plane? A rookie who can’t cut the mustard, because I want to see if he’ll rise to the challenge? Or am I going to give that assignment to my best pilot, my most experienced, my sharpest, my top gun… The very best I’ve got?
Things might be said, at the trial, that… are not going to be easy for you to hear. Things about me, about my private life. And I want to make sure it’s okay with everybody.
This is the essence of discrimination; formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits but rather on their membership in a group with the same characteristics.
To be honest, I’m worried about Mommy and Daddy. They’ve had to go through so much already. And, we all know… there’s going to be even worse things to deal with, eventually. I wonder if it’s fair to put them through this.
Well, I didn’t raise my kids to sit in the back of the bus… you get in there and you fight for your rights!
Were you aware in 1984 or 1985 that there was a fatal disease out there, called AIDS, and that you could contract it through sexual activity?
What’s that on your forehead, pal?
where is the beef?
Would you take a client if you were constantly thinking: ‘I hope this guy doesn’t touch me. I don’t even want him to breathe on me?’
You know, I don’t want to be in a bed with anybody who’s stronger than me, or that has more hair on their chest than I do. Now, you can call me old fashioned, you can call me conservative, just call me a man!
You want to apply the foundation as evenly as you can, Andy. You don’t want to look like you’ve thrown it on with a spoon.
Your Honor, imagine how the children in this neighborhood have been made to feel. The pounding of construction ringing in their ears as this skyscraper, a tribute to mankind’s greed, grows daily, casting an ominous shadow over their lives, filling them with dread even as they are surrounded in a black, toxic fog, blocking out the sun while poisoning their lungs!
Page Topic: Movie Quotes from ‘Philadelphia’: Quotes from the movie ‘Philadelphia’