Milk tells a compelling story of a man who moves to San Francisco in the early 1970s and finds self-satisfaction promoting human rights, environmental, labour, and neighborhood issues. Harvey Milk initially opens a camera shop but after facing anti-gay adversity decides to enter politics. Early in the movie, the protagonist is worried that he has do nothing to be proud of during his life but manages to draft several progressive pieces of legislation during his short time as a city supervisor. Milk also leads a coalition against state legislation targeting homosexual teachers.
Other themes in the film are Milk’s attempts to balance his love life with his political career and his development from a counter-culture figure to a slick politician who knows how to trade favours and make deals at City Hall.
The cast is very strong, lead by Sean Penn and Josh Brolin who received Oscar nominations for their parts. Penn seems to channel the Harvey Milk perfectly and rivals Frank Langella and Mickey Rourke for best male performance of the year. There supporting cast creates believable characters whose lives are intertwined with Milk’s career.
It’s true that there are too many biopics this year but films like Milk or Frost/Nixon are better than Last Chance Harvey (a different Harvey) by leaps and bounds. Gus Van Sant combines grainy film with archival footage to place the viewer directly in that particular time and place. However, watching one more hand-held camera film this year will be a tipping point for me.
Arriving late and skipping the requisite Duplicity trailer increased my enjoyment of the experience immensely. Watching a real-life double-cross – even one recreated on film – far surpasses the contrived “who will betray who?” films that have been overdone lately, three or four versions of the same script (many featuring Julia Roberts) per year. ****