I was invited to a screening of "Milk" tonight, which stars Sean Penn as the gay activist Harvey Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant. I do think it's a must-see for Brokies, if only because it features the Castro Theater!
**SPOILERS BELOW**
I thought it was very well done, with a few reservations. Gus Van Sant did a great job of mixing together live action with clips of actual events of the 70's. You get a real feel for the time and place. The characters are well drawn and believable, with the possible exception of Dan White (Josh Brolin), who I think needed to be better developed in order for us to fully absorb the events at the end of the film.
Sean Penn's performance is excellent, as you might expect. He portrays Harvey Milk as an outgoing, friendly, feeling man who is inspired at age 40 to give up his closeted life and live openly in San Francisco with his lover, played by James Franco. They move from New York in 1970 to the largely gay Castro district in San Francisco. The camera shop that they open soon becomes a neighborhood gathering place, and Harvey decides to run for office to make a difference in how gays are perceived and treated by the local police and city government. He's a natural leader, passionate about his cause, and unapologetic about his homosexuality. He does battle not only with bigots but with closeted homosexuals in positions of power who don't want him to make too many waves. It's moving to see his ups and downs, both in love and politics, and his eventual triumph in getting elected to the Board of Supervisors of SF in 1977. Sean Penn plays him with absolute conviction and naturalness, and his body language is terrific.
Some of my favorite scenes involved Harvey standing up to a State Senator who was pushing the passage of Proposition 6, which would have given the state the right to fire not only gay teachers but teachers who expressed support for them. There were numerous clips of Anita Bryant preaching her awful, self-righteous sermons about how evil homosexuals were (I had forgotten how truly smug and loathesome she was). When, against all hope, Harvey saw the proposal defeated, it was a joy to see him rewarded for all his hard work. This is the real strength of the film, I think. It really connects the viewer to the feelings and hopes of the men and women who so needed to be told that their lives counted for something and that they had a right to be who they were.
If I have a criticism of the movie, it would be that I wish it were more edgy. The music had a Hallmark-y quality to it, kind of like it was asking you to get all teary-eyed, and it didn't jive with the grittiness of the story. Also, though Harvey's affability and passion were clear, his darker side wasn't explored much. The buildup to his death at the hands of his disturbed former colleague lacked the right tension, and the climax suffered accordingly. The ending was moving, but it had an overly sentimental feel to it. It was here that I most missed Ang Lee's spareness and silence, so devastating in BBM.
Watching this, it was impossible not to think of the current situation in California with Proposition 8. If this film had been released a few months earlier, it might have made a difference in the outcome of the vote. Harvey Milk would have reached out from the grave to once again remind his fellow citizens that everyone, EVERYONE, deserves to have their rights, to have HOPE (a word he adopted long before the Obama campaign came along and made it their own).