Philadelphia (1993):

A film that takes on popular opinion and tries to overturn it, is certainly worthy of being in this pool. Philadelphia was such a film. Released only a few short years after the emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and amidst the incorrect assumption that it was a disease that only afflicted homosexual men, this film went to great lengths to dispel the homophobic ideas that were still present within popular opinion.

Casting the quintessential, all-American Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett – a gay lawyer who sues his former employer for unfair dismissal after being fired for having AIDS – was a move that helped put a familiar, non-threatening face to a gay victim of the disease. By doing so, those who had never met anybody like Beckett saw how unjust their views were. Philadelphia makes this poll because it's narrative reflects its position in popular culture: just as Beckett's homophobic lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) discards his outdated views within the plot, the film helped similar audience members do the same.

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