Milk
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Movie Reviews of Milk
Movie Review: Something For All Americans
Summary: 5 Stars
It really is hard to believe.......how different things were only a few decades ago regarding basic rights for homosexuals. Of course I cannot watch this movie and not think of a man named Charlie Howard,who in 1984 was murdered in my home state of Maine simply for whering makeup and carrying a purse. The subject of this film gave his life after doing a lot more then that,helping to open to door for something very significant. In the post Stonewall years in America there were still bars being raided,people being denied housing and jobs only because of their sexual orientation.That says nothing for similar injustices towards ethnic minorities and women. San Francisco in the 1970's was of course a counterpoint to these issues,as they say "a million voices raising a million issues".Well this centers on one of them;the story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) moving to an area of the city known as Castro,a growing hotbed for the gay community in city,along with his young beau. Together the two open up a camera shop that grows into something more significant. Before he knows it Milk,someone who arrived in the city as closeted and inactive as any homosexual man of his generation finds himself more then a little significant to the people of the Castro as a community activist. This all culminates in Milk entering local politics as a three time candidate for local supervisor,an election he eventually wins. He uses his newfound power to lobby against the Anita Bryant-led anti gay campaign and maintains his activist nature. In the meantime there is of course that sense that he's going to run into trouble of some sort from Dan White,the man running against him who grows seemingly more emotionally unstable as his political career begins to spin out of control. If you know how this story ends before seeing this movie then...well you'll see the motivations that lead to the tragedy. But this is an excellent film that brings to the public something many may have never been exposed to before. The civil rights movement,the holocaust and many other human injustices have been documented in many well known and wonderful film epics and frankly,it's about time a story like this get put out here in such a well done fasion.Sean Penn justly won an oscar for this role and in terms of him and everyone involved it's a complete triumph. What more can one say for a film that can entertain and inform?Movie Review: The Start of a Cultural Revolution!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first heard the name Harvey Milk about a few years ago when a new high school for gay teens was being opened in Manhattan and stirred a lot of controversy. That school was named after Harvey Milk. The news said that he was an openly gay politician from San Franscisco.
I was a little remiss at the time because when I hear somebody mentioned who I know nothing about, I usually research them at a minimum on Wikipedia. I failed and the name Harvey Milk was filed deep in my brain until this movie starring Sean Penn won critical acclaim and an award for best actor in 2008. I still failed to do any research.
The other night I finally saw this film and it was a fascinating tale. It shed a lot of light on things that I vaguely heard about but never really thought about. I remember Anita Bryant from all the orange juice commercials she did but nothing about her crusade against the gay community. When we look back today, she definately looked ridiculous. Her time could have been better spent on doing something more productive with her time.
The movie explains how the gay movement began in San Francisco, where Harvey Milk opened a shop that catered to a mostly gay clientele. Pretty soon other gay run shops started opening on his street (Castro) and pretty soon many gays started moving to the area. Many of them had very sad stories of being abandoned by their families because of their preferences.
Eventually Harvey is encouraged to go into politics and crusade for rights to protect people against discrimination based on their sexual orientation. It is a fascinating study and we also see a lot of the dirty end of politics where favors are bought and traded. Josh Brolin is excellent and one of Harvey's political peers who keeps requesting favors from Harvey but does nothing to help Harvey's cause.
James Franco looking much different from his Harry Osbourne/James Dean look, plays Harvey's friend and lover (Scott). Scott puts a lot of pressure on Harvey to give up political ambitions and causes Harvey to have to make several tough decisions.
One can easily see why Sean Penn was an easy choice for his Oscar in this role. A first rate movie that should not be missed.
Movie Review: An Extremely Powerful Motion Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
"Milk" is one of the best and most devastating movies I have seen in this decade. Harvey Milk is beautifully portrayed by Sean Penn in an absolutely flawless performance. The film is photographed with great sensitivity and power using some footage from the period. An activist who changed the gay world forever, Milk had a personal life that was severely challenged by his public political stands. The movie spends a great deal of time filling in the details of Milk as a person and a lover. It doesn't shirk from showing his erotic gay side.
The movie makes him a martyr, but so was Martin Luther King, Gandhi and so were many others who defied contemporary morals and ethics. The film is very good at portraying the organization of political lieutenants that Milk built up. It makes Milk funny, vulnerable, driven, sympathetic, and has examples of the oratory he used to sway his advocates. If there is a villain in the piece it is Anita Bryant who had an agenda of prejudice and hate that motivated Milk and his allies. White, Milk's killer, is portrayed as a deeply troubled man who was predetermined by destiny to cut down his rival.
The movie depicts the birth of the Castro in San Francisco as a gay area. Milk was one of the first merchants there with his camera store. He learned the power of organization by starting a gay owners' association which rivaled the straight merchants' groups.
This film gives everything a sense of urgency and intensity which adds to its power. You feel as if you are living his life with him.
For those who did not live through the Milk era this is a history lesson, but it also does a fine job of delineating any kind of political activist. It may seem to some as too sympathetic a portrayal, creating a picture of a man that was almost too "good" to be true but his failures in personal relationships and single-mindedness correct that view of a man without flaws. Sean Penn has, in a series of difficult roles, developed into a fine screen actor, versatile, protean, and capable of conveying great emotion and power. A superior movie.
Movie Review: A time and a place in history that defined a watershed of change! A great film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Sean Penn won an Oscar for his outstanding performance in this 2008 film. No wonder. He is simply magnificent. And, in my opinion, the film is a winner in every category. Not only does it tell the true story of the man himself, Harvey Milk, who, in 1977 was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was the first openly gay elected official in America, it is the story of a movement and a time and a place in history that defined a watershed of change.
Bravo to the filmmakers! The casting is perfect with James Franco playing the long-time boyfriend of Harvey Milk and Josh Brolin cast in the role of a troubled fellow city supervisor, who in an insane frenzy, brutally murdered both Milk and the Mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone in 1978.
We first meet Milk, a 40-year old New York businessman, who changes his life dramatically by embracing the counter-culture movement and moving to San Francisco in the early 1970s with his young lover. They live in the Castro district, which is fast becoming a Mecca for gays, opening a camera store and fighting the establishment. Soon, Milk becomes political, running for public office. He loses, not once but twice, but, finally, when he changes his hippie appearance and starts to wear suits, he eventually is elected. He fights vigorously for gay rights, influencing gays to unite and "come out of the closet" and mostly, because of his activism and his strong personality, a proposition to keep gays from teaching in public schools, promoted by the gay-bashing activist, Anita Bryant, was defeated.
Sadly, Harvey Milk served a mere 11 months in office before he was assassinated. But the changes he brought about are living on as the concept of inclusion is a reality in our culture today. The cinematography and direction are exceptional and there is not a dull moment in the film. I loved every minute of it. Hooray for Harvey Milk! And Hooray those who brought his inspiring story to the screen!
This film gets my highest recommendation. Don't miss it!
Movie Review: I am here to recruit you!,
Summary: 5 Stars
"My name is Harvey Milk and I am here to recruit you!"
This is simply a must-have movie - great director doing his best (notably better than his last), a bunch of great actors doing their best (Sean Penn hasn't done is so well for quite a while, James Franco is simply sweet), superb camera-work (parts of the movie look like original 70s footage), and screenplay based on a great true story which makes the best of it - can you ask for more?
The film concentrates on the final years of Harvey Milk's life - the chronology is a little twisted (we know that Milk's going to die from the beginning and the events are commented by Milk himself who makes a memoir-like tape-recording in the final days before his death) but Van Sant probably couldn't help giving it this little twist. We first meet Milk when he picks up a new boyfriend in New York on his 40th birthday, and he concludes that he has not done anything he would be proud of. The couple decides to move to San Francisco when they open a shop with photo equipment in the Castro which gradually changes into a gay district it is today. Yet successful as he is as a buisnessman, Milk yearns for more. He repeatedly runs for the city council and succeeds at the third time, trying another local election in the meantime. The costs of his campaigns are high - his boyfriend leaves him, a new one proves to be mentally unstable. Milk reaches his goal, he becomes the first openly gay person elected to a high office in the USA. As a politician he is quite successful, the movie concentrates on a campaign he orchestrates successfully defeats proposed law banning teaching posts to homosexuals. Yet in the process he offends (unintentionally and the man is quite clearly presented as having serious issues) one of his colleagues who ends up shooting both the Mayor of San Francisco and Milk himself. Milk dies but what he started lives on so the movie ends on a hopeful note.
Have I recruited you already? Go and get the CD. You won't regret it for a moment! I can smell some Academy Awards here!