Milk

Milk is Gus van Sant's 2008 film which follows the rise of Harvey Milk from living a somewhat bohemian life to becoming the first elected gay official in California; and it is really brilliant and should be watched by as many people as possible.

The film starts with Milk (Sean Penn) recording some of his will in 1978, which is then interspersed throughout the film. We then go back to 1970 in New York, where Milk meets his young lover Scott Smith (James Franco) on his fortieth birthday. They both travel to San Francisco, hoping for more acceptance from the local community. The neighborhood where they live would become known as The Castro, a predominately gay area. Milk uses his background in business to become a gay activist and attempted to run for political positions numerous times before finally being elected in 1977, during which time Smith left him and he took up with another man, Jack Lira (Diego Luna). During his time as a member of the board of supervisors, Milk meets Dan White (Josh Brolin), a conservative former police officer & firefighter, and they develop a rather uneasy working relationship. Milk's work leads to Proposition 6, supported by Christian fundamentalists and Senator John Briggs (Denis O'Hare), which dictated that gays and lesbians could be fired from teaching in California schools, being defeated. Only a few days later, White shoots both Major Moscone (Victor Garber) and Milk dead, and eventually served only five years in prison for both murders.

Van Sant's film intersperses real footage of riots, the Castro and of Anita Bryant (the fundamentalist behind Prop 6) with the film itself. At first it felt a little slow and I was worried that the hype was unfounded, yet by the time Milk began to make moves in political circles I found the film increasingly gripping and by the end I was left with the feelings of utter thrill when Prop 6 was defeated, and van Sant's film manages to make all see the injustice that the people faced without being overly sugary.

Sean Penn was very good at bringing to life Harvey Milk, indeed, he won an Oscar for his performance but for me the more Oscar-worthy performance was that of Josh Brolin who was brilliant in my opinion as Dan White. Good work also came from James Franco as Scott Smith, who remained playing a key role in the movement and also from Diego Luna who brought a level of humour to the self-destructive Lira. Allison Pill as the lesbian campaign manager Anne Kronenberg was also very good, as was Emile Hirsch as the young Cleve Jones.

I would really, really recommend this film. The real footage of people suggesting that gays would 'recruit' children to their lifestyles made me feel a bit ill, as did the horribly fundamentalist views that were represented. The film was released to coincide with a vote on Prop 8 in the US, which bans gay marriage, and which still hasn't been fully defeated. It is really very sad to think that more than 30 years after Milk's death such homophobic views are still so prevalent, if not even more so.