Review: Milk

Indie filmmaker Gus van Sant (Elephant, Paranoid Park) has crafted a traditional bio-pic about historic figure Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in this country. Sean Penn gives a wonderful, inviting performance as the easy-to-smile Milk, a formerly closeted office worker who, approaching his fortieth birthday, realized it was time to be true to himself.

The film begins with romance: Milk meets a handsome younger man (James Franco as Scott Smith) on a subway platform in New York and convinces him to be his birthday date. They are surprisingly charming together -- these two straight actors playing gay men -- in the early throws of a relationship that will last many years. Van Sant and his actors do not shy away from showing the emotional and physical intimacy between men. Diego Luna gives a comic performance as Milk's needy lover Jack.

The story follows Milk and Smith to San Francisco. Milk opens a business, a camera shop in the then tiny gay enclave on Castro Street. The jump from business proprietor to activist seems to come naturally to Milk. The support of the gay community is good for business; before long, Milk is campaigning for government office. The film shows Milk's all too brief career in politics until his tragic murder by former city supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin).

At a press conference for Milk, many of the young actors -- from Alison Pils, who plays campaign manager Anne Kronenberg, to Emile Hirsch as the tight jeans wearing Cleve Jones -- admitted that they did not previously know much about Harvey Milk. Unlike civil right's hero Martin Luther King, Milk's contribution to American history is not taught in schools. Milk should help to rectify that.

Van Sant's film also has added significance after the passage of California's Proposition 8, defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Nearly thirty years prior, Milk led a successful campaign against Proposition 6, which would have prevented gay school teachers from keeping their jobs. Come out of the closet, Milk entreated the gay community. Prop 6 was defeated; the film, written by the young, gay Mormon screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, will hopefully be an inspiration for activists to come.

As a history lesson, Gus Van Sant's bio pic does a fine job. As an engaging narrative, despite Penn's appealing performance, Milk is less successful. Inclusion of archival footage constantly reminds us that we are watching actors playing real people. Rob Epstein's highly lauded documentary The Times of Harvey Milk won the Oscar in 1984.

Milk (2008)
Starring: Sean Penn, Allison Pill, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Produced by: Bruna Papandrea, William Horberg, Dustin Lance Black
Release Date: November 26th, 2008 (limited), December 5th (expands)
MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.
Distributors: Focus Features