After a solid track record and a much-deserved promotion, Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a handsome, upwardly mobile Philadelphia lawyer, loses his high-paying corporate job when he starts developing full-blown AIDS. Though Andrew's firm attributes his dismissal to his supposedly poor performance, he knows otherwise, and he won't accept the firm's discrimination lying down. Andrew will do whatever is necessary to prosecute. But when nine other lawyers refuse to help him, Andrew reluctantly hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a showy, homophobic, ambulance-chasing lawyer whose first reaction to the news that Andrew has AIDS is to rush to the doctor and have himself checked. Despite Joe's fear and dislike of gays, he and Andrew discover they've got quite a bit in common, and they decide they're going to fight to the finish. The result is an emotionally potent drama that doesn't flinch from exposing the long-term effects of the disease on Beckett and his friends and family. Jonathan Demme directs and Bruce Springstein sings the title song, 'Streets of Philadelphia,' part of an Academy Award-winning score.

Two men, an AIDS sufferer and a black lawyer, launch an historic struggle against society's ignorance and intolerance towards AIDS. Tom Hanks won an Academy Award for his masterful performance and he is ably supported by Washington and Robbards.