Yesterday, I finally had the opportunity to watch _Milk_, the new movie chronicling the short-lived political career of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk. Milk was the first openly gay politician in California.

I thought that the film did a pretty good job of telling the Harvey Milk story, and I would recommend it to those who are into political movies. I have to warn prospective viewers that there are some gay sex scenes in the film. While not too graphic, these might make some viewers uncomfortable. When I ran across the first of these parts of the film, I was a little bit uncomfortable, and I found what I was viewing very UN-sexy. The subsequent sex scenes were more tolerable to me. Another thing that was a shock to me (as a Gen-X person who grew up in the era of AIDS) was the "hook-up" culture that was dominant at the time. Milk is portrayed as meeting his lovers in chance encounters and soon thereafter becoming physical with them; the first, he met at a subway station in New York, and the second he met outside of the photography shop that Milk ran in San Francisco. I can accept that likely, the film's producers were being true to the way things were in the era before AIDS.

I found Milk's political career fascinating, and the circumstances of his assassination were slightly different that what I had understood them to be from listening to tapes of Jello Biafra speeches years ago. The story begins in 1970, when Milk leaves his corporate job in New York City and moves across the country to San Francisco's Castro district. Surprisingly (to me), San Francisco's police department and general atmosphere were hostile to gay people in those days. At first Milk and his lover were living the hippie life in San Francisco, smoking pot, doing amateur photography, but not much else. In 1972, Milk opened Castro Camera, which would support him financially and serve as the organizing center for all of his political campaigns.

Milk ran several unsuccessful political campaigns in the early and mid 1970s. In 1977, the district boundaries in San Francisco were re-drawn, causing Milk's district to primarily cover the Castro and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. In November of that year, Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors.

Throughout the film, Milk had a radical and highly idealistic streak about him, traceable to his hippy days. Many people, including some prominent people in politics and in the gay world wrote him off because of this (I probably would have, too). The magic of Milk, however, was that despite the idealistic rhetoric, he knew which key constituencies he had to sell his message to, and he was highly skilled at organizing people. Most importantly, he was able to direct the anger of the gay community regarding anti-gay legislation that was being pushed by Fundamentalist Christian activists, such as Anita Bryant, into something constructive ("I'm Harvey Milk, and I want to recruit you").

Milk served on the Board of Supervisors for less than a year before being assassinated by Dan White, a colleague on the Board of Supervisors. The issue that pushed White over the edge (ironically) was the construction of a mental hospital in his district. White did not want the hospital built, as he believed that it would attract crime. He insisted that he had a duty to his constituents to prevent this from being built in their backyards. Milk told White that he believed that the city needed a new mental hospital and that as a result, he could not vote against it. White became enraged at Milk for "humiliating" him, and his rage extended to Mayor George Moscone, who had become a close ally of Milk. Judging from White's reactions, I suspect that he might have suffered from a paranoid personality disorder. In frustration at what he saw as corruption in City Hall, Dan White resigned. A few days later, White changed his mind and asked the mayor to re-appoint him to his seat on the Board of Supervisors. The mayor refused, and this prompted White to assassinate him and Milk.

Milk is on my must-see-on-DVD list.

Anyone turned off by the sex scenes are quite likely not gay, so its a perfectly normal reaction. Besides, if the director has made people react emotionally during the film (even if just "uncomfortable", then he has succeeded, because after all, who wants to watch a bland film?

Thanks for the review!

In a sense, I have to say "kudos" to the actors because they did play all the parts, including the sex scenes very well. Overall, this movie does a very good job of pulling the viewer in to the world of Harvey Milk and 1970s politics. The skill and dedication of Milk and his campaign workers is breathtaking to watch. One important message that I got out of this film is that to enter the political world and make an impact, one must be willing to give all of oneself to launching the campaign and then some more. Milk's dedication to politics took up a lot of his time and strained his relationships. By contrast, it is almost laughable to think of what one guy said to me regarding his vision of what being in a certain political party should be: "all that anybody should need to put in around here is about an hour a week."

http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_02/adv382j/eoff/ultimategood by/got%20milk_files/image002.jpg

Dan White was one of, if not the first to use the "twinkie defense" claiming an addiction to junk food, particularly sugar, made him unstable.

He owned a french fry shop at touristy "Pier 39" in SF, which his wife continued to operate after his imprisonment. It was a wierd tourist attraction for some.

If you are in the least bit a homophobe don't see this movie. If you are a macho man who doesn't want to see you macho men out their shed a tear towards the end of this film don't see it.

I felt that this was one of Gus Van Sant's better films. I liked how he told and framed the story. I was not offended or squrimish of the gay sex scenes (even seeing the movie sitting next to my mother) but I think it was more because of how those sex scenes were shot that they were not overtly uncomfortable.

I am looking forward to comparing and contrasting the performance of Harvey Milk by Sean Penn versus the performance of Randy "the Ram" Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler which hits nationwide in a couple of weeks.

BTW has anyone ever heard or read that Sean Penn himself is a homophobe? I just don't see it but here take a look at this:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-29/rourke-trashes-penn/

Yeah I know Mickey Rourke is pretty much a nobody washout. But if his words are true this could effect his chances at a nomination at this point as the ballots were mailed last week.

With that said my next in theatre experience will not be the Wrestler but Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire which some are saying is a shoein for Best Picture.

Time will tell

I hate these gay films I like the oldtime he men actors like Rock Hudson and Gary Grant.

"I hate these gay films I like the oldtime he men actors like Rock Hudson and Gary Grant."

You are quite right. It is such a bore to watch straight stars like Sean Penn pretend to be gay. It is so much more fun to watch gay stars like Rock Hudson and Cary Grant pretend to be straight. Oh, you meant Gary Grant?

Alfredo and Shyguy, thanks for the reviews and the insight. Gus Van Sant can be inconsistent as all hell, but I still like his work. "Drugstore Cowboy" is arguably the best movie about Portland to ever come out of Portland. I look forward to seeing "Milk" on the small screen.

Straight, gay, pretending to be straight, pretending to be gay...Doesn't matter.

I'm not going to watch Sean Penn period.
(Except in Fast Times At Ridgemont High and that's because of Phoebe Cates, not Sean Penn!!!)

Yes Skybill Penn is not known for his "great" roles but this is one of them. Imagine if it ended up being Oliver Stone's version of Milk with Robin Williams as Harvey Milk. Ouch.

He was good in Mystic River but maybe it was Clint Eastwoods directing that made it good.

Ill pass on this one, had no idea who this guy was before and care even less now.

Sorry there wasn't a car chase in the film to get your interest.