Simply A Masterpiece

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Milk is perhaps one of the most overrated films of all time and just like other movies of this kind such as Brokeback Mountain, Love Simon and many more the movie was boring and just really weird especially the story. (0/10)

Milk is a biography drama film that tells the story of Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist who became the United States' first openly gay elected official, up until his assassination by Dan fellow city supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant, and he does a really, really solid job. From the very opening of the film, it's clear what this film's intent is- to get you invested in Harvey's life, what happened to him, and the plight of the gay community in San Francisco at in the 1970's. This is all achieved, in quite a brilliant way. Harvey's political career was cut extremely short, as he didn't begin running for office until his forties and he was only city supervisor for eleven months, but his impact was felt. He was the leader of the movement that was taking place in San Francisco at the time. It is clear that Van Sant really does try to keep the film historically accurate, and it does not appear that there are any fabrications to the story, although it is clear to anyone with knowledge on Harvey and his life that some things have been cut out. The film opens with Harvey meeting Scott Smith, his longtime boyfriend, the night of his fortieth birthday, so anything that happened in his life before that point is not explored, although this really works to the films merit. The way this narrative is woven throughout the film is what makes it such a strong piece. In the beginning, it is explicitly said what is going to take place by the end of the film, so that the meat of the viewer's focus is brought to the events as they take place, and how we get to the eventual outcome. The performances here are fantastic, with Sean Penn's sincere and bubbly performance as Harvey Milk being one of the best of his career. His chemistry with James Franco as Scott Smith is also just fantastic. The people around Harvey, his political team and his friends, are incredibly likeable, interesting, and well acted. The story and time setting of this film is what really sells it. It is extremely engaging, very well thought out, and establishes an absolutely great symphony of different moods throughout its duration. The costume design and the way in which this movie is shot really establishes the time period of this film extraordinarily well. There's shots during scenes in which Harvey's giving speeches from a crowd, that are either shot from a crane overhead or from right in the crowd, which are incredibly engaging, and establish mood very well. There are a lot of very memorable scenes in this film that really compel the viewer to sympathize with the movement, and Harvey's dedication to being able to not just be gay, but openly gay in America. Harvey's occasional narration through tape recorder is a great technique to keep the story moving, and it adds great depth to his character. While the dialogue is pretty well written, every now and again it feels a little manufactured, with dialogue setting up the next event, but it's still very serviceable and not too distracting. It's not only a landmark in biography and LGBT film, but an important historical film as well. I absolutely love this film. 9.0/10

"Milk", directed by Gus Van Sant, is a biopic of the first openly gay elected official in the United States, Harvey Milk. Set in 1970's San Francisco, this movie is filled with both hopeful messages of the gay rights movement and also emotional trials for Harvey Milk and his community. In a strategic move that sets the scene as Harvey Milk being a martyr for the gay community, the film opens immediately with the fact that Milk and the Mayor of San Francisco have been assassinated. Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, opens the movie with a flashback to a recording of himself discussing the possibility of his assassination for his supporters the people around him as a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. This recording is cut in and out of throughout the entire film, with Harvey discussing many of the things he accomplished and also the many difficult times he faced. Milk, originally a relatively closeted insurance seller in New York City, is shown picking up a younger man in a subway station and ultimately share an intimate sexual scene. This man is Scottie Smith, played by James Franco, who ultimately becomes Milk's partner and eventual campaign manager. This scene is intimate, casual, and almost a lighthearted juxtaposition to the seriousness of the opening scenes about an impeding assassination. The movie continues on with Harvey and Scottie in San Francisco, with Harvey transforming into a bearded, camera store owning, openly out, resident of the Castro district. There are countless scenes of the lives of Harvey and Scottie and the surrounding happenings in the Castro eventually lead to the politicization of Harvey Milk. This change in his character is closely linked to the scenes of bar riots and corrupt police in the city during this time. The movie is focused mostly on the campaign and leadership of Harvey Milk, with many empowering scenes of gay pride, speeches of hope, and intimate moments between Harvey and his lovers and peers. Harvey's relationship with Scottie eventually comes to demise, and his struggles with this can be considered a major part of the plot of this film outside of the obvious political movement that is clearly the focus. The second relationship that is portrayed in this movie is with Jack, another man much younger than Harvey that comes knocking on his door looking for help with his psychological and drinking problems. Ultimately portrayed as unhealthy, this relationship is on Harvey's mind through many major moments in the movie while Scottie seems to have distanced himself. The final acts in the movie are scenes where Dan White, a fellow councilman, assassinates both Harvey and the Mayor. His motives are not made clear, and historically are also inconclusive, but the scenes are very "Hollywood" and include dramatic elements that are more than likely not as historically accurate as other parts of the movie. The assassination act itself is not a focus in this movie, with the scene only really lasting about ten minutes out of the entire two-hour film. Nicely wrapping this film up is the stunning display of the vigil that took place in San Francisco in honor of the victims of the killings. Overall, this movie portrays Harvey Milk and the ear of gay liberation in an extremely positive and tasteful way. Sean Penn's Milk is incredibly powerful and ensues the heroic qualities that Milk in real life surely had in order to lead these sorts of movements and protests. That being said, there is a bit of an issue with how big the role of this one man is made to seem in this movie. There is a lack of understanding of the community that was already in place in San Francisco when Harvey and Scottie arrive there, as it almost seems like Harvey Milk is the only reason that anything political really took form in this community, when really it was the work of so many men and women trying to get rights for themselves and their peers. The portrayal of Harvey and Scottie and Harvey and Jack is also something to be questioned about regarding the historical accuracy of this film. While the portrayal is arguably a positive one of homosexual relationships in comparison to the negative portrayals often seen in Hollywood, it is important to note that this is romanticized for the purpose of the viewer, as there are discrepancies on how these relationships went in Harvey's real life. I would argue that this is not super important to the portrayal of Milk as a man, it should be noted when critically looking at this film."Milk" overall can be taken as an honorable movie about an extremely honorable man. A biopic that is beautifully shot and scripted to be more historically accurate than many other movies take an attempt to reach. This film has "normalized" portrayals of gay relationships and the gay community in general from this time period. The added elements of movie making that went into this sort of Hollywood production should not take away from the overall message of hope and love, that surely Harvey himself would want to be taken away from this story that ended so tragically.

In 60's San Francisco, the police are cracking down on gay men. In 1970 NYC, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) hooks up with Scott Smith (James Franco) but he's still on the down-lo. In 1972, they decide to go to San Francisco to start anew. They find an economically-depressed Haight. Harvey opens a camera shop and becomes an organizer on Castro Street. He gathers gay support and businesses supporting gays. He meets young Phoenix teen Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) who dismisses Harvey at first. He runs for office but fails. Anita Bryant is on a country-wide crusade against homosexuals. In 1977, there is redistricting and Harvey runs for one of the supervisors with Anne Kronenberg (Alison Pill) as his campaign manager. He starts going out with Jack Lira (Diego Luna). He finally wins as one of the first openly gay politician. In 1978, he is put in office along with opponent Dan White (Josh Brolin) from the conservative Irish Catholic district and supportive Mayor Moscone (Victor Garber). It's a tumultuous year that ends in tragedy.Director Gus Van Sant keeps this biopic along the straight and narrow following a standard biopic formula. Certainly, Harvey Milk's life has a lot of sign posts to observe. Through it all, Sean Penn gives the character a caring humanity. The large cast is populated by great actors. I would have liked more from some of these supporting characters but the story has to keep moving. Overall, this is a solid biopic.