Penn brings Harvey back to life in Gus Van Sant's Milk
Milk is the moving true story of an audacious politician, Harvey Milk, who rose from anonymity to become the focal point of San Francisco's burgeoning gay community as the first openly gay man elected to public office.
This film cannot be timelier. With its story of an unknown politician gaining grassroots experience as an organizer on the community level who rises to the level of public office, becoming a symbol for a larger and older movement, it is easy for someone of any political background to draw parallels. In the case of Barack Obama, it was the issue of race; Harvey Milk, however, had his sights set on gay rights.
After living as a disgruntled insurance salesman in New York for several years, Harvey (Sean Penn) decides to turn his life upside down on the eve of his 40th birthday. After falling in love with a young man, Scott Smith (James Franco), Harvey trades his suit for a pair of jeans, grows out his hair and comes out to San Francisco to make a new life for himself and his partner.
Quickly after opening Castro Camera with his last bit of savings, Harvey finds his corner of the city turning into a haven for gays and lesbians. From this vantage point, he is able to witness the ongoing discrimination against gays in the city. Anti-gay violence inspires Harvey to organize the gay community in order to gain political power.
The challenge of any biopic is daunting because the story has already been told and the ending is already known.
Life does not always experience a smooth transition to art, and the director does not have the luxury of tweaking the plot when it might disinterest the viewer. Gus Van Sant does an excellent job of following and dramatizing only the details of Milk's life that captivate the audience. He relates Milk's individual rise with the collective rise of gay issues to the national stage.
One of the strengths of the film is Van Sant's extensive use of stock footage drawn from news reports and local shots of 1970s San Francisco. The cinematography is engrossing and brings to mind a profiling journalist right in the thick of Milk's movement. Van Sant is also evidently fond of filming the reflections of scenes in different objects for artistic effect. This gives rise to one of the most affecting scenes of the movie which is filmed entirely in the reflection on a whistle.
This film cannot be timelier. With its story of an unknown politician gaining grassroots experience as an organizer on the community level who rises to the level of public office, becoming a symbol for a larger and older movement, it is easy for someone of any political background to draw parallels. In the case of Barack Obama, it was the issue of race; Harvey Milk, however, had his sights set on gay rights.
After living as a disgruntled insurance salesman in New York for several years, Harvey (Sean Penn) decides to turn his life upside down on the eve of his 40th birthday. After falling in love with a young man, Scott Smith (James Franco), Harvey trades his suit for a pair of jeans, grows out his hair and comes out to San Francisco to make a new life for himself and his partner.
Quickly after opening Castro Camera with his last bit of savings, Harvey finds his corner of the city turning into a haven for gays and lesbians. From this vantage point, he is able to witness the ongoing discrimination against gays in the city. Anti-gay violence inspires Harvey to organize the gay community in order to gain political power.
The challenge of any biopic is daunting because the story has already been told and the ending is already known.
Life does not always experience a smooth transition to art, and the director does not have the luxury of tweaking the plot when it might disinterest the viewer. Gus Van Sant does an excellent job of following and dramatizing only the details of Milk's life that captivate the audience. He relates Milk's individual rise with the collective rise of gay issues to the national stage.
One of the strengths of the film is Van Sant's extensive use of stock footage drawn from news reports and local shots of 1970s San Francisco. The cinematography is engrossing and brings to mind a profiling journalist right in the thick of Milk's movement. Van Sant is also evidently fond of filming the reflections of scenes in different objects for artistic effect. This gives rise to one of the most affecting scenes of the movie which is filmed entirely in the reflection on a whistle.
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