Milk [DVD] [2008]

On 8 November 2008, Barack Obama was elected the first African-American President of the United States of America, in a landmark historical moment. On the same day, Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, which would enforce a ban on same sex couples right to marry and the rights which come with it. Proposition 8 passed. Eighteen days later, Milk, the biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the US, hit cinema screens. Swings and roundabouts eh?In 1972, newly out New Yorker Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) moves to San Francisco with his much younger lover Scott Smith (James Franco), hoping to find greater acceptance of their lifestyle. They open Castro Camera in the heart of Eureka Valley, a working class neighbourhood which was evolving into a predominately gay locality. When he encounters prejudice in the supposedly liberal San Francisco, he starts to make forays into politics, although it is 1977 before he is finally elected to public office, with his cause gaining national significance. It's whilst serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that he meets Dan White (Josh Brolin) - Milk's eventual executioner.Jamie Fox as Ray Charles, Forrest Whittaker as Idi Amin, Helen Mirren as `The Queen' and Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf. All have won the best actor or best actresses Oscars in recent years, and all have been for portrayals of real people. Sean Penn looks set to continue this trend. Penn completely immerses himself into the character of Harvey Milk. However, he never tries to depict him as a hero or a messiah. He simply portrays him as an ordinary man, who yearns for a better world, and achieves his aims through unwavering strength and pragmatism. From the stock footage of Milk shown at the end of the film, it's also clear that Penn as Milk's mannerisms down to a tee.Penn is backed up by a strong supporting cast as well. James Franco breaks out of his brooding Harry Osborne typecasting as Scott Smith, Milk's much younger lover. Franco's character brings the audience away from the world of politics and into Milk's private life, where we learn how a career in public life affected Milk's private relations. Emile Hirsch's Cleve Jones is the embodiment of the hope that Milk's vision gave to countless numbers of people. Josh Brolin's Dan White is a bit of an enigma. His character really should be been fleshed out further, as the film doesn't really spend enough time with him to understand the motivations behind his final murderous actions.Gus Van Sant recreates the warmth and exuberance of `The Castro' beautifully, with great attention to period detail, even managing to gain access to the original buildings. He also makes good use of stock footage of Milk's nemesis, Anita Bryant, the leader of the Save Our Children campaign. The aim of her campaign was to remove all gay teachers from their post, as many saw them as paedophiles, or `recruiters' for the gay cause. Using the real footage of Bryant, and other anti-gay rights campaigners, reminds the audience of how recently these events occurred in US history, and Van Sant slots them into the film perfectly.There are some holes in Dustin Lance Black's screenplay though. The first and third acts of the film - his arrival in `The Castro' and his career in politics - end up squeezing out the second act. This gives the illusion that his eventual election was a simple matter of perseverance, rather than years upon years of work with the local community. It would have been beneficial if some of these areas had been filled, rather than just glossed over.The VerdictMy name's Craig MacLellan and I've been recruited

I am a straight male in my early 30s, and I confess that I didn't know who Harvey Milk was before watching this film. I am into a wide variety of film genres (as my review history reflects), and picked this movie up not knowing what to expect, but went for it on the strength of the (deserved) critical praise is has received. In short, it is one of the best films I have seen in a long time.Sean Penn gives a deservedly acclaimed performance as Milk, a charismatic, entertaining individual. The supporting cast - none of whom I personally was familiar with - also put in excellent performances.Without meaning to brush over the important work and advancements Milk made on behalf of the LGBT community, this is a story that appeals far beyond the gay community, and a classic story about standing up for the downtrodden.The film runs at two hours; in some movies, I find this a bit long and my attention starts to wander, but in the case of 'Milk' I found it the perfect length; it needs the full two hours to tell the story, and I can honestly say I did not feel it to sag at any point.It's hard to accurately class this film - for its most part, it is a drama-biography, but it also has some nice moments of comedy, and is also very touching at points.There is little I can find to gripe about with this movie. I did find that Harvey met the two big loves of the story (first the charming Scott, later the demanding Jack) and fell in love with (and was in bed with) barely after meeting them; I did wonder if this was tweaked to suit that pacing of the film.Some have commented that they felt the film concentrates on Harvey's love life too much, neglecting further detailing of his political career. I personally did not feel this at all - I found both elements to be well balanced, and think it was important to give an overview of Milk's whole life, not just political, to get a more rounded view of him.Regarding the DVD release, extras are three deleted (and pretty inconsequential) deleted scenes, a 15 minute documentary looking profiling Harvey Milk, a 13 minute making of featurette, and a third looking at the recreation of the candlelight vigil (but which also strays into other areas). There are also international and UK versions of the film's trailer. Ordinarily I like to see an audio commentary on DVD releases, but maybe it was felt this film didn't need one.All-in-all, this is a really enjoyable movie. You don't have to have gay interests to become engrossed in it, and I am glad that it is bringing the tale of Harvey Milk to a new generation, including myself. And at under a fiver, you can't go wrong. Highly recommended.(I have just ordered 1984 Academy Award-winning documentary 'The Times of Harvey Milk', which fans of 'Milk' might like to check out to get more background of Harvey).