Milk

I wish this movie could have a better title. I understand that "The Mayor of Castro Street" was already taken, but seriously, could they not come up with a better title than Milk? Okay with that out of my system, I move on to reviewing.

Harvey Milk(Sean Penn) is 40 years old and he laments that he has not done anything with his life. Scott Smith(James Franco), the young man he picked up for the night tells Harvey that he should move. The two men set out for San Francisco and soon, they open a camera shop on Castro street. In the 1970s the gay movement was making waves in hopes of capturing what the civil rights movement of the 60s did. Milk knows that in order to make change, they need one of their own in office. Harvey is not a man who was born to be a hero, but he could see no one else would do it, so he did it. He tried, at least. After 3 unsuccessful attempts at running for office, even though he got the unions, old people and the gays, Milk swore to Scott he would give it up, except new zoning laws made it possible for Milk to win. Scott has to leave and Harvey soon shacks up with Jack(Diego Luna)and Harvey wins a seat on the city board of supervisors.. He, along with Dan White(Josh Brolin) make up the new members and they forge an unusual relationship that will ultimately be the downfall of Milk. In 1978, Anita Bryant was making the rounds across America condemning homosexuals and states across the nation were putting in propositions stating that gay people could be fired or lose rights just for being gay. The movie climaxes with California's Proposition 6 and Milk's fight to beat the proposition. It is a story that is sadly still all too relevant today.

If it seems I kind of plowed my way through the story, I kind of did and I apologize for that, but this is not going to be a typical kind of review except to say this: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch and everyone else acting in this movie are superb and my issues with the movie lay with Gus Van Sant's spotty pacing and the kind of nauseating story structure.

But none of that matters with this movie. Milk is evidence that a movie with flaws can rise above them when the message in the movie is important or clear. Harvey Milk was a very flawed individual with a taste for young men and the movie does not shy away from that, but Milk was more than just a gay politician and this movie paints the portrait of a man who believed in giving people hope above all else. Yes, this is a movie about gay rights, but it is a movie about having faith in what is right and knowing in your heart to have hope that things can be better and while the screenplay is not perfect, Dustin Lance Black, wrote some amazing stuff for Penn to speak, especially towards the end as we watch Milk dictate his life in a sort of last testament and will of a man who believes he could be killed at any moment for just trying to make people equal.

I cannot in good faith place Milk at the top of my list for the year because the movie is slow, boring and at times too tedious for its own good, but it perseveres through it all with a message of love and hope. Penn's Milk is a smart, innocent bookish dork with an unusual oratory style, but has gusto and balls and is willing to do whatever it takes to get his message across. he is a man who believes in his cause and by contrast, Josh Brolin's Dan White is a closet case, unsure of who he is and sees Milk as too confident, too sure and it scares him. Their scenes pop with life and both men give the words meaning and a life of their own.

Milk is the kind of movie I expect to be with me for a while, and a movie that is sadly needed in this day when homosexual people are still fighting for equal rights. Luckily this movie fills me with hope that their day is coming and this movie makes me believe that when that day comes it will be the most fabulous of occasions.

Oh and I dare you to not tear up when Milk recieves a phone call from a wheel chair bound gay teen who wants to kill himself.

Final Grade: A-