Movie review: Milk

As the awards season is coming up one movie that is on a lot of people's lists is Milk. Milk is the story of Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in the United States. In 1977 he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. During which time he fought tirelessly for gay rights in California.

The movie stars Sean Penn in the title role and also stars Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Speed Racer), Josh Brolin, and James Franco (Spider-Man). All of them do a great job but Sean Penn is the standout performance of the movie. He has already been nominated for several awards and I am sure that he will get an Oscar nomination. Josh Brolin was also very good and he is nominated for the SAG and could possibly see an Oscar nod.

The movie is directed by Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Paranoid Park) and the movie is very well put together. There is a lot of great camera work but the thing that makes it unique is how he used old TV footage. While you are watching the movie you will see footage from local and national newscasts showing what was happening at the time. It doesn't take you out of the movie and does a very good job of emphasizing what is happening.

At the time the singer Anita Bryant was on a crusade to take away the rights of gay people all over the country. This started with a repeal of gay rights in Florida and the attempt to pass Proposition 6 in California which would have fired any openly gay teacher and anybody who supports them. It's funny because now he just had Proposition 8 passed in California which bans gay marriage.

Usually in the case of a movie telling a person's story they cover their entire life. In this case they decided to just focus on his political years. I think this was smart because then either the movie would run long or you'd have to rush the childhood segments. So by just focusing on his attempts to be elected to public office then that becomes the story of the movie rather than the story of his entire life.

Overall this is a very good film. Unfortunately it is not one that will see very wide theatrical release unless they decide to relaunch it after the Oscar nominations come out. If you get a chance I say definetly see this movie. It really open your eyes to an incredible man that did a lot for a group in this country that still have very little rights. If there were more people like Harvey Milk in this world then maybe gay people would be treated as equels instead of inferior citizens or degenerates.

My score: 8.0/10