I hope that it will become very important this movie about Milk !
By the way, in the trailer, there is the unveiling of a giant rainbow flag. I thought the rainbow flag wasn't around back then. It came about in the 1980's. Am I wrong?
It's been interesting to see the audience response to the trailer for MILK. It's been shown before BURN AFTER READING, THE DUTCHESS and W. So the crowds are a bit more sophisticated then typical the typical moviegoer.
I've actually heard some hostile comments from ppl in the audience ("Oh, I certainly won't be seeing this!"). Some ppl have been more receptive.
It's a very impressive trailer though I don't know how it's going to do at the cinema. I think a film needs to gross USD 30,000,000 for it to have a shot at being nominated for best picture.
Did anyone attend the premiere at the Castro yesterday?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/28/BA2J13Q99C.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/28/BA2J13Q99C.DTL)
excerpt: In an interview on Monday, Milk's campaign manager Anne Kronenberg, who is now a San Francisco public heath administrator, said, "I just saw the movie yesterday, and I still haven't recovered from it. Gus (Van Sant) and the production team caught the era exactly. It's very accurate. What really comes across is that feeling of compatriots and being family that we felt."
Here is a (not great) set of photos from the event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/georg_lester/sets/72157608467323689/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/georg_lester/sets/72157608467323689/)
(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w197/oilgun/ABC%20Movies/Milk01.jpg)
This trailer showed at a movie I saw the other day, and I heard nothing from the audience, in a good way.
From http://weblogs.variety.com/hal/2008/11/did-milk-miss-t.html (http://weblogs.variety.com/hal/2008/11/did-milk-miss-t.html)
Did "Milk" miss the opportunity to change history?
Well, that's what I wondered about the timing of the release. Seems like it would have also benefitted the film to get it out there pre-election.
Since: Here is an interview with James Franco about MILK and him acting in it and how he felt "uncomfortable and not that fun" doing the gay scenes. Why do straight men go out of their way to say it!
,
then why don't they give that acting job to a gay man ? May I ask ?
We, gay men, need jobs too !!
So, producers are discriminating against gays ?
Here is an interview with James Franco about MILK and him acting in it and how he felt "uncomfortable and not that fun" doing the gay scenes. Why do straight men go out of their way to say it!
I know what you mean, Eric.
Contrast Franco's comments (..."his whiskers kept getting in my mouth...") with Heath's (..."I wasn't kissing the butt of a mule, it was a human being with a soul"...).
Franco may be cute, but I'm not impressed.
And happy that I am not the only one to boycott... these days as this are news to me that I welcome !
I know what you mean, Eric.
Contrast Franco's comments (..."his whiskers kept getting in my mouth...") with Heath's (..."I wasn't kissing the butt of a mule, it was a human being with a soul"...).
Franco may be cute, but I'm not impressed.
Who said anything about a boycott. I'll be first in line to see this movie!
OK oilgun ?
Au revoir,
hugs!
See the post above. Do not see MILK (or any other movie for that matter) at any Cinemark, Century, CineArts, or Tinseltown theatre:
http://www.nomilkforcinemark.com/
Here is a complete list of all Cinemark, Century, CineArts, and Tinseltown theatres to avoid in the future: http://www.cinemark.com/tspage.asp
Please do be the first in line at any other theatre of your choice! :)
There are some cinemas to boycott in Canada it seems to me, too, if you are there !
Yes, it is thirty years....
NBC NEWS November 27, 1978
George Moscone & Harvey Milk Dead (5:04)
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUB-RCNBDnk[/youtube]
The kisses and sex scenes are pretty tame. (Makes me wonder what Van Sant would have done with Brokeback...)
The period details were terrific. However, the music was distracting and incongruous most of the time. The period music was fine, but Danny Elfman's score seems pulled from some other, melodramatic film. (Contrast to Mark Isham's wonderful, spare score to "Times".) The opera bit was beyond heavy-handed. (Meryl?!)
Thanks for your insights, Paul. You seem to have liked it less than I did, but then I've never seen the documentary. The movie probably suffers from the comparison.
I am glad that Van Sant didn't direct "Brokeback." It would have been a very different film. It's incredible how just the right people were drawn together to make that film what it was, not the least of whom was Gustavo Santaolalla. That music was so spare and intelligent and atmospheric; it really reflected Proulx's prose beautifully. I agree that Elfman's score didn't fit "Milk" very well. It kept jumping out at me instead of drawing me in even deeper.
The opera bits were also curious. Clearly, "Tosca" must have been Harvey Milk's favorite opera. Years ago I worked on the operatic version of Harvey's story, and I seem to remember some "Tosca" references in that, too. The scene where Harvey is watching the death of Cavaradossi was meant, I guess, to foreshadow his own death. Spoletta, who comes in at the climax, looked an awful lot like Dan White, which had to have been on purpose. But I don't know why Van Sant had him looking at the marquee of the opera house with "Tosca" advertised on it as he was dying. It just doesn't seem that important to bring up at that moment.
Thanks for your insights, Paul. You seem to have liked it less than I did, but then I've never seen the documentary. The movie probably suffers from the comparison.
The opera bits were also curious. Clearly, "Tosca" must have been Harvey Milk's favorite opera. Years ago I worked on the operatic version of Harvey's story, and I seem to remember some "Tosca" references in that, too. The scene where Harvey is watching the death of Cavaradossi was meant, I guess, to foreshadow his own death. Spoletta, who comes in at the climax, looked an awful lot like Dan White, which had to have been on purpose. But I don't know why Van Sant had him looking at the marquee of the opera house with "Tosca" advertised on it as he was dying. It just doesn't seem that important to bring up at that moment.
Milk is prose and BBM is poetry.
...I've said elsewhere that I'm a big fan of the 1984 documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk". "Milk" borrows heavily from the documentary, and follows a good chunk of its structure. In fact, many instances of footage included in the documentary were simply recreated with actors. I found myself thinking, why did "Milk" even have to be made? To me, "Times" was sparer, less sentimental, and ultimately, more effective and more moving. "Milk" does flesh out Harvey's life, and his motley inner circle. But I found it too hero-worshipful. I think the blame lies with the script. Sean Penn does his best to inject some nuance and dimension that just isn't in the script.
I was thinking about this in the shower this morning (go figure!), and it occurs to me that one reason it's good the biopic was made, despite some faults, is that the big names like Sean Penn, James Franco, James Brolin will draw a (hopefully) wider audience from a (again hopefully) different demographic than the documentary did. In addition, twenty-plus years later it's good that the material be revisited even though the documentary will likely always stand as the definitive film on Harvey Milk.
So, I've seen 'Milk.'
First, I must say, the actors are first rate. Sean Penn is wonderful, James Franco is a love.
The movie, well--Van Sant did manage to transmit a great deal of information and package it into 128 minutes. But--as retopian said, 'Milk' is prose, not poetry.
But--as retopian ALSO said--one hopes the movie will reach a wide audience.
Well, good. We need it. It may not be a great film, but it is a good film, a worthy film.
Next to last: the most evocative (and scary) character was not Josh Brolin as Dan White, but the real-life Anita Bryant in full-color documentary footage. Attractive, charasmatic, talented--and utterly dangerous. Van Sant was wonderful, at least, in cleverly using the important footage, and inserting it at the right points. Good job!
Finally: the last image, just before the final credits, the silent, laughing Harvey Milk, himself. It was then tears sprung out from my eyes.
We are all in his debt--straight and gay.
John, thanks so much for posting all these interesting articles and pictures. :-*
The opera bits were also curious. Clearly, "Tosca" must have been Harvey Milk's favorite opera. Years ago I worked on the operatic version of Harvey's story, and I seem to remember some "Tosca" references in that, too. The scene where Harvey is watching the death of Cavaradossi was meant, I guess, to foreshadow his own death. Spoletta, who comes in at the climax, looked an awful lot like Dan White, which had to have been on purpose. But I don't know why Van Sant had him looking at the marquee of the opera house with "Tosca" advertised on it as he was dying. It just doesn't seem that important to bring up at that moment.
I took the references to Tosca to be a kind of relatively heavy-handed referback to something that occurs early on in the film, when someone (The Franco character?) ribs Milk about his love for opera and Milk says he likes opera because "it's larger than life" etc. So when Milk watches the death of Cavaradossi and Tosca, it's a foreshadowing - and when he watches the Tosca posters as he dies it's going fulll circle into making the statement that his life was larger than life, just like opera. So it makes perfect sense that there is an opera about him. I didn't know that.