Movie Review: Milk

Categories: Biopic, Movies | no responses

As a history buff growing up in California, I was aware of the story of Harvey Milk. I didn’t know about the details, but I knew he was the first (openly) gay politician elected to public office & I knew he had been murdered before his first term was completed. I never realized how much of an activist he was nor how long it took him to get elected. I also never knew he was just feeling his way through the process. I had always thought of him as a politician who happened to be homosexual. As with any docudrama, I’m sure some of the details were changed or embellished, but the over all theme boiled down to one thought voiced by Sean Penn in this movie: "My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you." That is essentially what he does throughout this film. He is recruiting. Recruiting for the movement. Recruiting for his campaign. If the real Harvey Milk was anything like the person portrayed in Milk, then he was a born politician.

So, how was the film? I guess it will depend on the viewer. First, it’s a docudrama. If you don’t like docudramas, you may not like this movie. Second, there is probably more homosexual intimacy in this film than I have ever seen onscreen this side of porn. Granted, it isn’t graphic. You won’t see any penis or anything. But it does show a lot more than anything else I have seen. If you are sensitive to seeing that sort of thing, this isn’t the movie for you. Lastly, even if you don’t know who kills Harvey, it isn’t hard figuring it out. I’m sure the film was made assuming the audience already knew who did it.

So, why should you see it? Well, right from the beginning, Sean Penn’s performance is phenomenal. I grew a greater appreciation for his acting abilities when I saw him in I Am Sam. His performance in Milk raised the bar even further. I now can see why he won his Oscar for this role. For me, he was Harvey Milk. I also loved the way they the blended stock footage of the time with the film they were making. You never knew when you were going to see it. One minute you were looking at something that was shot last year, the next you are seeing news coverage that was shot in the 1970’s. As a history fan, I always find that stock footage like that adds authenticity to what I’m watching.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie. The acting was fantastic & I learned a lot more about something that ultimately shaped not only California, but the entire United States. Below is the cast list, synopsis & trailer. If you have seen this film, let me know what you thought of it.

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writer: Dustin Lance Black

Staring:

Sean Penn…Harvey Milk
Emile Hirsch…Cleve Jones
Josh Brolin…Dan White
Diego Luna…Jack Lira
James Franco…Scott Smith

After moving to San Francisco, the middle-aged New Yorker, Harvey Milk, became a Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977, making him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. The following year, both he and the city’s mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White, who blamed his former colleagues for denying White’s attempt to rescind his resignation from the board.
Mr. Milk had been the subject of several books and the Academy Award-winning documentary feature, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); but Milk (2008) is the first fictional feature to explore private aspects of the man’s personal life and career.
Milk was filmed on location in San Francisco. Many of Mr Milk’s real-life surviving friends and former associates participated in the making of this film, several appearing on camera.