Philadelphia (1993)

Denzel Washington: Joe Miller

Photos 

Quotes 

• Joe Miller : Have you ever felt discriminated against at Wyatt Wheeler?

  Anthea Burton : Well, yes.

  Joe Miller : In what way?

  Anthea Burton : Well, Mr. Wheeler's secretary, Lydia, said that Mr. Wheeler had a problem with my earrings.

  Joe Miller : Really?

  Anthea Burton : Apparently Mr. Wheeler felt that they were too..."Ethnic" is the word she used. And she told me that he said that he would like it if I wore something a little less garish, a little smaller, and more "American."

  Joe Miller : What'd you say?

  Anthea Burton : I said my earrings are American. They're African-American.

• [Andrew transcendentally describes his favorite opera,slowly walking around his apartment, closing his eyes, looking up] 

  Andrew Beckett : Do you like opera?

  Joe Miller : I'm not that familiar with opera.

  Andrew Beckett : This is my favorite aria. This is Maria Callas. This is "Andrea Chenier", Umberto Giordano. This is Madeleine. She's saying how during the French Revolution, a mob set fire to her house, and her mother died... saving her. "Look, the place that cradled me is burning." Can you hear the heartache in her voice? Can you feel it, Joe? In come the strings, and it changes everything. The music fills with a hope, and that'll change again. Listen... listen..."I bring sorrow to those who love me." Oh, that single cello! "It was during this sorrow that love came to me." A voice filled with harmony. It says, "Live still, I am life. Heaven is in your eyes. Is everything around you just the blood and mud? I am divine. I am oblivion. I am the god... that comes down from the heavens, and makes of the Earth a heaven. I am love!... I am love."

• Joe Miller : What do you love about the law, Andrew?

  Andrew Beckett : [from the witness stand]  I... many things... uh... uh... What I love the most about the law?

  Joe Miller : Yeah.

  Andrew Beckett : 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.

• Judge Garrett : In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation.

  Joe Miller : With all due respect, your honor, we don't live in this courtroom, do we?

• Joe Miller : [in a bar, to Filko, after seeing Andy being interviewed by reporters]  Some of these people make me sick. But a law's been broken here. You do remember the law, don't you?

• Joe Miller : [to Jamey Collins on the witness stand]  are you gay?

  Jamey Collins : [confused]  what?

  Joe Miller : [gradually raising his voice]  are you gay?, You know a faggot?, A, a punk, a fruit, a queen, a fairy a booby snatcher, rump roaster, pillow biter, ARE YOU GAY?

• Joe Miller : Now, explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old.

• Andrew Beckett : [in Joe's office]  That's their story. Wanna hear mine?

  Joe Miller : How many lawyers you go to before you called me?

  Andrew Beckett : Nine.

  Joe Miller : Continue.

• Joe Miller : What's wrong with your face?

  Andrew Beckett : [upon entering Joe's office]  I have AIDS.

  Joe Miller : I'm sorry. I, uh...

• Joe Miller : [sitting on opposite sides of the table in the library, reading to each other from their text books]  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...

  Andrew Beckett : 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 precede... which precedes the actual physical one.

  Joe Miller : 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.

• Joe Miller : [standing next to his table]  Who did you get?

  Andrew Beckett : [sitting down at his table]  What?

  Joe Miller : Did you find a lawyer?

  Andrew Beckett : I'm a lawyer.

• Joe Miller : [part of his opening statement to the jury]  Forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies.

• Joe Miller : [while being interviewed by reporters]  We're standing here in Philadelphia, the, uh, city of brotherly love, the birthplace of freedom, where the, uh, founding fathers authored the Declaration of Independence, and I don't recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it says all men are created equal.

• Andrew Beckett : [while lying on a hospital bed]  What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?

  Joe Miller : [amused,sitting next to him on the hospital bed]  I don't know.

  Andrew Beckett : A good start.

• Young Man in Pharmacy : I don't pick up people in drugstores every day.

  Joe Miller : What, you think I'm gay?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : [confused]  Aren't you?

  Joe Miller : [irritated, looks down at his clothes]  Do I look gay to you?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : [looks down at his clothes]  Do I look gay to you?

  [Joe starts to walk away in a huff] 

  Young Man in Pharmacy : Joe, relax.

  Joe Miller : No, what do you mean relax? You know, I ought to kick your faggoty ass.

  Young Man in Pharmacy : Take it as a compliment. Geez!

  Joe Miller : You know, that's exactly the kind of bullshit that makes people hate your little - faggoty ass.

• Joe Miller : [in Joe's office]  I don't buy it counselor.

  Andrew Beckett : That's very disappointing.

  Joe Miller : I don't see a case.

  Andrew Beckett : I have a case!

• Dr. Armbruster : The HIV virus can only be transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids, namely blood, semen, and vaginal secretions.

  Joe Miller : Right. Yeah. Yeah, but isn't it true they're finding out new things about this disease every day? Alright, now, you tell me today there's no danger. Go home. I go home. I pick up my little baby girl. Then I find out six months from now on the news or something: Whoops! Made a mistake. Yeah, you can carry it on your - on your shirt or your clothes or?

• Young Man in Pharmacy : [as Joe storms away]  You want to try and kick my ass, Joe? Asshole.

  Joe Miller : [shouts back]  No, YOU'RE the asshole, buddy!

  [Young Man chuckles] 

• Joe Miller : Explain this to me like I'm a six year old, didn't you have an obligation to tell your employers you had this deadly infectious disease?

  Andrew Beckett : That's not the point from the day they hired me to the day they fired me, I served my clients consistency thoroughly with absolute excellency if they hadn't fired me that's what I've be doing today.

  Joe Miller : And they don't want to fire you for having AIDS so in spite of your brilliance they make you look incompetent thus the mysterious is that what you're trying to tell me?

  Andrew Beckett : Correct, I was sabotaged.

• [first lines] 

  Andrew Beckett : [making their cases before the judge in her office]  This 'pestilent dust' that council refers to has appeared on only three occasions. Each time it was tested and the results: limestone. It's messy, but innocuous.

  Joe Miller : [leans in toward Andrew]  Innocuous?

  Andrew Beckett : Defined by Webster's as 'harmless.'

  Joe Miller : I know what it means. May I?

  [takes the packet of dust] 

  Joe Miller : Thank you. Your honor

  [takes a whiff of the dust] 

  Joe Miller : , imagine how the children in this neighborhood are being made to feel: the constant pounding o-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 by this toxic dust.

  Andrew Beckett : Y-Your honor, Kendell Construction builds neighborhoods; it doesn't *destroy* them. Granting a restraining order against this construction site will throw 753 Philadelphians out of work and lend validation to this contemptable groundless nuisance suit. It's an example of the rapacious litigation that, today, is tearing at the very fabric of our society.

  Judge Tate : Let's not go off the deep end gentlemen. You've made an articulate and compelling presentation Mr. Miller, but I don't believe you've proven irreparable harm.

  Joe Miller : Not yet your honor.

• Lisa Miller : You have a problem with gays, Joe.

  Joe Miller : Not especially.

  Lisa Miller : Yes, you do. How many gays do you know?

  Joe Miller : How many do you know?

  Lisa Miller : Lots.

  Joe Miller : Like who?

  Lisa Miller : Karen Berman, my Aunt Theresa, cousin Tommy who lives in Rochester, Eddie Meyers from the office, Stanley - the guy who's putting in our kitchen cabinets.

  Joe Miller : Aunt Theresa's gay? That beautiful, sensuous, voluptuous woman is a lesbian? Since when?

  Lisa Miller : Probably since she was born.

• Young Man in Pharmacy : How's the trial going?

  Joe Miller : Excuse me?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : It's a great case I saw you on TV I'm a law student at Penn State

  Joe Miller : It's a good school Penn what year are you in?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : Second, I just wanted to tell you this case is tremendously important I just wanted to let you know you're doing a fantastic job

  Joe Miller : [gives him his business card and they shake hands]  When you graduate you give me a call.

  Young Man in Pharmacy : Thank you very much, would you like to have a drink with me? I just finished a game and could really use a beer

  Joe Miller : No I can't my wife's waiting for me

  Young Man in Pharmacy : [Signals him to lean closer, whispers in his ear]  I don't usually pick up people in drug stores everyday

  Joe Miller : You think I'm gay?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : Aren't you?

  Joe Miller : What's the matter with you? Do I look gay to you?

  Young Man in Pharmacy : [Shows him his football jersey]  do I look gay to you?Take it as a compliment

  Joe Miller : [Feeling insulted grabs his jersey]  that's exactly the kind of bullshit that makes people hate you fagots

• Joe Miller : [Plaintiff opening statement]  Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies. There's not going to be any last minute surprise witnesses, nobody's going to break down on the stand with a tearful confession, you're going to be presented with simple facts. Andrew Beckett was fired and you'll two explanations on why he was fired, ours and theirs it's up to you to sit through layer upon layer of truth until you determine for yourself which version sounds the most true. There's certain points I must prove to you. Point number one: Andrew Beckett was - is a brilliant lawyer, a great lawyer. Point number two: my client afflicted with a disabling disease made the understandable, the personal, and the legal choice to keep the fact of his illness to himself. Point number three: his employers discovered his illness and ladies and gentlemen the illness I'm referring to is AIDS. Point number four: they panicked and in their panic they did what most would do which is just get "it" and everybody who has "it" as far as away as possible. The behavior of my client's employers seem reasonable to you. It does to me. After all AIDS is a deadly incurable disease but no matter how you come to judge Charles Wheeler and his partners in ethical and moral and inhuman terms, the fact of the matter is, when they fired Andrew Beckett because he has AIDS they broke the law.

• Joe Miller : [on the phone]  Nice champagne. I don't care how much it costs. Get some nice Dom Pérignon. How much? A hundred dollars? Don't get Dom Pérignon. Get a nice Californian. Dom Pérignon's too much.

• Joe Miller : Think about those guys pumping up together trying to be macho and faggot at the same time. I mean, I can't stand that shit. Hey, I'm bein' totally honest with you, okay?

• Joe Miller : Hey, Dr.J. How are you? You're the best. If you ever need a lawyer for anything, you give me a call. If you slip and fall, you know, accidents, anything, let me know.

• Joe Miller : All right. I got a question for you. Would you accept a client if you were constantly thinking, "I don't want this person to touch me. I don't want him to even breathe on me"?

• Joe Miller : All right. Well, hey, I admit it, okay? I'm prejudiced. I don't like homosexuals. There. You got me.

  Lisa Miller : All right.

  Joe Miller : I mean, the way these guys do that - thing, don't they get confused? "Oh, I don't know. Is that yours? Is that mine?" You know, I don't want to be in bed with anybody who's stronger than me or who 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. Besides, I think you have to be a man to understand how really disgusting that whole idea is anyway.

• Joe Miller : How many weeks at a time would you be out to sea without stopping at port?

  Walter Kenton : Oh, anywhere from two weeks to several months.

  Joe Miller : Any women on board?

  Walter Kenton : Not when I was in the navy.

  Joe Miller : So, during these long voyages, months at a time, out to sea, no women in sight, hundreds of hardworking, robust young men in the prime of their lives, at the peak of their natural appetites and desires, their God-given hormonal instincts, anything going on?

  Walter Kenton : Going on? Like what?

  Joe Miller : Like two sailors down below makin' flippy-flop?

• Joe Miller : You had one guy like that? You mean a homosexual?

  Walter Kenton : He strutted around quarters naked trying to get everybody to notice him. Made everyone *sick*. He was destroying our morale. So we let him know this kind of behavior was not acceptable.

  Joe Miller : How'd you do that? What? You wrote him a letter?

  Walter Kenton : We stuck his head in a latrine after ten of us had used it.

• Joe Miller : Your Honor, everybody in this courtroom is thinking about sexual orientation, sexual preference, whatever you want to call it. Who does what to whom and how they do it. They're looking at Andrew Beckett. They're thinking about it. They're looking at Mr. Wheeler, Miss Conine, even you, Your Honor. They're wondering about it. Trust me, I know they're looking at me and thinking about it. So let's get it out in the open. Let's get it out of the closet. Because this case is not just about AIDS, is it? So let's talk about what this case is really all about the general public's hatred, our loathing, our fear of homosexuals and how that climate of hatred and fear translated into the firing of this particular homosexual, my client, Andrew Beckett.

• Charles Wheeler : You may tap dance around me all you wish with your innuendoes and locker room fantasies. But the truth still remains that your client worked when he wanted to work, telling us what he thought we needed to know about who he really was. Andy insisted on bending the rules and his work suffered tremendously in the long run as a result of that.

  Joe Miller : Will you explain this to me like I'm a six-year-old, Mr. Wheeler, 'cause I just don't get it. Who makes these rules that you're talking about, huh? You?

  Charles Wheeler : Read your Bible, Mr. Miller, Old - and the New Testament. Pretty valuable rules in there.

• Andrew Beckett : Congratulations, Counselor.

  Joe Miller : Congratulations?

  Andrew Beckett : You've survived what I assume to be your first gay party intact.

  Joe Miller : [chuckles]  Let me tell you something, Andrew. When you're brought up the way I am, the way most people are in this country, there's not a whole lot of discussion about "homosexuality" - or what do you call it, alternate lifestyles. As a kid you're taught that queers are funny. Queers are weird. Queers dress up like their mother, that they're afraid to fight. that they're a danger to little kids and that all they want to do is get into your pants. That pretty much sums up the general thinkin' out there, if you want to know the truth about it.

  Andrew Beckett : Thank you for sharing that with me.