Grundmann and Sacks have much less good to say about the film. They say some of the story is not genuine, like the relationship between Andrew and Miguel. Among many other criticisms, they also believe the movie is melodramatic and superficial, and does not go far enough to show the real suffering of a man with AIDS.  By J. Wheeling

Drake describes the road to AIDS awareness among the gays of New York City through an outspoken gay writer named Larry Kramer. Kramer helps raise money and awareness for AIDS, and goes from complete failure to resounding success before getting kicked off-board when his mission gets going. This article describes the fear the gays have of fighting an enemy they knew nothing about. In the three-and-a-half months between these articles, the number of people with AIDS jumped from 850 to 1,350, and the number of deaths rose from 300 to over 500. By J. Wheeling

Drake talks about the newly discovered “acquired immune deficiency syndrome”, called AIDS. Like the name indicates, it weakens the immune system so that minor infections that normally only affect the elderly and frail like a cold can kill a person with AIDS. People generally receive symptoms many months after being infected, and have major side effects of extreme fatigue, weight loss, and lesions on the skin. The disease started out in gays, but people later realized it could be spread throughout homosexuals. Little was known about the disease, but doctors suspected it is transmitted through blood transfusions and through sexual activity. 800 people had been positively diagnosed, and of those 300 had died and many more were probably to come. By J. Wheeling

Rothman talks about how the movie is an unprecedented one because it uses over fifty actors who had AIDS during the filming, over 80 percent of which have since died. Even Ron Vawter, a gay actor who played a law firm member on the board against Beckett was positive for the disease. Contains some moving quotes from the later deceased actors.  By  J. Wheeling

Maslin describes the film as “forceful, impassioned and moving” filled with excellent acting, but it is predictable and is a conservative attempt at a movie based on AIDS. It was the first Hollywood movie talking about the disease and tries to educate the general public.  By J. Wheeling

Kaiser foundation website provides basic health facts for most countires, and includes citations and links to the data sources.

In Philadelphia many of the extras had AIDS or were HIV-positive and were recruited from Action AIDS Philadelphia.  Since the film’s release, 43 out of these 53 extras have died.  Jonathan Demme purposely set out to use AIDS patients in the film, which caused some apprehension with other members of the crew.  By L. Pardue

The UNAIDS/WHO Global HIV/AIDS Online Database collates the most recent country-specific data on the spread and impact of the virus, together with information on risk behaviours (e.g. casual sex and condom use). Health sector response information (eg. data on people receiving treatment and coverage of hiv counselling and testing) is also an essential part of this database.

UNAIDS section on HIV/AIDS in Asia. Includes reports and limited data at http://www.unaids.org/epi/2005/doc/EPIupdate2005_html_en/epi05_06_en.htm.

Kaiser foundation website provides basic health facts for most countires, and includes citations and links to the data sources.