When AIDS was discovered, it was believed to be a "gay disease." This common misconception lasted until as late as the 1990's. This movie exceptionally exhibited peoples' reactions to AIDS and how ignorant they were about it during the time period of the film. Not much was known yet about AIDS because not enough medical research had been done, so naturally the public was misinformed. A perfect example of this ignorance comes in the scene when Andy is reading court cases in the library and he sneezes and people feel very uncomfortable. This discomfort comes from the fact that people thought at the time that AIDS could be contracted by any kind of contact with an infected person. The librarian comes over to Andy and says, "Sir we have a private research room open, would you like to use it?" to which Andy replies, "No, would you like me to use it?" In this scene specifically, the film exemplifies the attitude toward gays and people with AIDS in the 1980's.

Along with not knowing how AIDS was passed along, at that point in time, people thought that AIDS could only be contracted by gay people, hence the name "GRID," or Gay Related Immune Deficiency. This led to a growing dislike of gays and a lot of discrimination. The film also portrayed this aspect of 1980's society very well. Outside of the trial on the first day when Andy leaves the courthouse there are people outside protesting against gay rights with signs such as, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." There is also another example of peoples' emotions towards gays when in one scene Denzel Washington is inside a pharmacy and a gay man asks him to go out and have a drink with him because he likes that he is one of the few standing up for gay rights. Denzel responds with outrage and threatens to beat the man up. These scenes exemplify the discrimination gays went through in the 1980's.

Philadelphia is a film about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's and its cause for discrimination towards gays and it portrays it just as it happened in history. Most people in the movie except close friends of Andy are hostile towards gays. Even the distinguished head of Andy's former law firm did not like gays. A smarter man like his character also shows how little people actually knew about AIDS at that time. A very educated man like the head of an enormous law firm does not know that AIDS was not only for gays and could not be passed through hugs, handshakes, or sneezes. Philadelphia excellently portrayed the social climate of the 1980's and peoples' lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS.

This film takes place in a time which saw the rich get much richer, the poor get much poorer, and the middle class remain the same. These rich getting much richer were for the most part "urban professionals," or, "yuppies," that is stockbrokers, accountants, and company traders. Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko both fit perfectly into the mold created by the yuppies. They are rich, they have very expensive cars, clothes, and houses and they are materialists who had a never ending greed. Fox sees Gekko as one of these yuppies who always smokes very expensive cigars, owns expensive property and is always trying to get richer at any cost; he is extremely greedy. After Gekko takes Fox in, he is immediately seen riding in an expensive chauffeured car, with a very nice suit, and a beautiful girl. Soon after this, Fox buys a very lavish apartment and they show the decorators putting up paintings and painting gold on the walls of part of his house. Showing Fox and Gekko living these yuppie lifestyles, especially with Fox's walls getting painted gold, was a very accurate representation of the time period.

In the beginning of the film Fox fit into the middle class whose wealth never changed. He was unable to buy anything he really wanted and had trouble paying his rent. Fox was a stockbroker who never took risks, only buying very safe stock, so he never made the huge profits like Gekko did. At this point he became discouraged with being in the stationary middle class and developed the greed Gekko had. He saw Gekko living very lavishly, knew he had an enormous net worth, and wanted it. Gekko showed him how easy it was to make large amounts of money under the Laissez-Faire presidency of Ronald Reagan. Reagan believed in not regulating business and so the stock market was also affected by this, only in the end does Fox finally get caught after he and Gekko do hundreds of illegal trades. Through Gekko's help and Reagan's laissez-faire presidency, Fox made the transformation from honest, lower middle class stockbroker, to this greedy upper class stockbroker who violated Securities Exchange Commission rules. The director portrayed this change very accurately at this point in time the U.S. businesses and the stock trading were not regulated well and the yuppies took advantage of this through illegal activities and speculation.

When Bud Fox is walking around New York City, or is ever outside, the atmosphere is of a very bustling, cramped, dark and polluted world. There are always thousands of people talking and walking through the streets and piling into the Wall Street buildings. One good example of this crowded, never sleeping, busy city is when Fox squeezes himself into this very small cramped elevator to go to work and it has a very claustrophobic feeling. Outside there is a shroud of smog to make it seem very dark and polluted, which represents the time period very well, it was one of the most environmentally unfriendly and polluted times in American history.

The 1980's were a time of the yuppies, pollution, and the deregulation of business and the stock trade. This movie represents the time period very accurately, it shows Fox and Gekko doing illegal dealings and finally getting caught by the stock commission, it shows Gekko, and eventually Fox with the lavish lives full of greed, and it shows a dark and polluted world, reflecting the terrible environmental situation at the time. Wall Street portrayed Wall Street and the social climate of the world as it was during the 1980's.

The first change from the story to the film is renaming Jig as Ash. Ash has little or no symbolic meaning, while Jig was used by Hemingway to convey one of the parts of the plot, "the jig is up, and the charade is over." In the beginning of the story, Jig believes that the man loves her and trusts that he will be with her. Near the end, however, she no longer believes he loves her and has decided to give up on him. Thus, "the Jig is up." By changing her name, this aspect of the plot is not conveyed as well by the film as it was originally by Hemingway.

The screenwriters also changed Jig's age. The actress playing Jig appears to be in her early 30's, while in the story Jig is a "girl." Hemingway made Jig a girl in the story to make her inferior because she is a girl and her friend is a man. By making her a woman, the film takes away the inferiority meant to be conveyed by Hemingway.

Another change made by the screenwriters was to the scenery. In the story, the couple never leaves the train station. In the film, they were arguing at the station about getting the abortion, and then they cross the train tracks and walk through an olive grove. This change of setting breaks the tension and claustrophobia of the story, which makes reading the story more exciting. By going to the olive grove, the film eliminates important dialogue and adds meaningless background information instead. The tension that arises when the couple is confined to the table in the train station is a more effective way to tell the story than walking through the olive grove.

Finally, the screenwriters rearranged critical dialogue. One of the first statements Jig makes in the film, is to say, "I feel fine. There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine." In the book, on the other hand, this statement is one of the last pieces of dialogue. In the book, it is important because of its placement. By the time Jig says she is fine, she has had an epiphany and indicates it by her statement. She feels fine because she has figured out that the man does indeed not love her. By making this the first line said by Jig, the screenwriters eliminated her important epiphany from the film.

Hills Like White Elephants has symbolism throughout the whole story, whereas in the film, the characters explain what the symbolism and metaphors mean. One instance in the film is when Jig says, "the hills look like white elephants," and the man replies, "what is a white elephant I've never seen one," to which Jig says, "white elephants do not exist they are just something you don't want," thus explaining the symbolism behind the quote and the film's title. Providing an explanation in this manner detracts from the film watcher's need to interpret and discover the story's meanings on his/her own, which is ultimately less effective because it makes the film watcher less involved.

After reading the story by Hemingway and watching the film, it is immediately evident that they are very different. The film switches the dialogue often and also adds new setting and names. Considering Ernest Hemingway was dead long before the film was produced, he had no input and his ideas were not correctly represented. Much of his intended symbolism was left out of the film and certain feelings of anxiety and tension amongst the couple were ruined. The short story by Ernest Hemingway was far more effective at conveying these feelings than the film.