Philadelphia

This affecting drama was the first major Hollywood movie about Aids, and it won Tom Hanks his (deserved) first best actor Oscar. Hanks plays gay lawyer Andrew Beckett, who takes his powerful employers to court for sacking him after they discover he is suffering from an Aids-related illness. The company bigwigs (including Jason Robards in a reptilian portrayal of intolerance thinly masked by bluff camaraderie) claim he was dismissed for incompetence. Beckett's counsel is wheeler-dealer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), whose homophobia is counter-balanced by his nose for a good case and essential sense of fair play. Hanks portrays the ravaged, dying Beckett as a disabled everyman whose life has lessons for all of us, but does not disconnect the character from his cause. His crescendo of praise for an opera aria is a tour de force of close-up acting and a stunning scene of life-affirming passion.