Review of Milk (1999) by Diana L — 08 Oct 2014

While I'm obviously playing with a little hindsight here, Sean Penn displays the most impressive performance I've seen in years as gay activist, Harvey Milk, in the biopic by Gus Van Sant. Milk documents the rise, and eventual murder, of Harvey from a former insurance salesman to unstoppable political force in the 1970s.

Sean's performance is the highlight of the film. As hard as it is to like him sometimes, one can't watch this movie and not be amazed at his ability. I have not seen The Wrestler, so comparing his performance to Mickey Rourke's is impossible thus far, but Penn is unmatched in this film.

The subject matter is gritty, as all Gus Van Sant movies tend to be, so the film itself is the same. There is one shot in the film where the scene is against the reflection of a whistle, having fallen on the ground after its owner, a gay person in the Castro district of San Francisco, has been beaten to death by cops. There is another that, instead of the camera following the characters, the lens rapidly turns opposite the characters and into a mirrored reflection of the characters in the scene. Very indie/art house and very well done.

Milk is timely in that it shows what California, and thus the nation, had to overcome in the 1970s in obtaining any shred of gay rights. It's weird what I vividly remember from this era and how, at no point, did I ever hear of Harvey or the gay movement against Anita Bryant. I guess I was sheltered.

In any case, the film is timely because California is leading the way to fight for the rights for gay marriage. Personally, and especially after watching Milk, I am dumbfounded that gay marriage is not only illegal, but STILL illegal after everything that was sought in the late 1970s.

It's interesting to watch the religious right try to hang on to the one last shred of their stronghold on morality. I have every bit of confidence that this too shall pass. Not allowing gays to marry is simply retarded. They are people just like the rest of us. Their love may be different than what has been traditionally accepted, but it's love nonetheless. And personal, as well as legal, expression of that love is up to the individual.

It's strange to write how difficult it is to obtain gay marriage rights when it is clear that this country felt like equal rights for gays was just fine by the late 1970s. I guess with the advent of AIDS, predominantly in the homosexual community in the 1980s, the religious right ensured that any progress was pushed back or, at the very least, stymied. As a result, gay America has had to inch its way back to its normally accepted existence and infiltration into society today. However, with that infiltration, I'm stunned that the legality of gay marriage is still a controversial issue. It seems rather simple, at least to me.

While it's easy to slam Hollywood for their liberal political views and constant political statements, Milk shows just how hard this struggle is/was and how absolutely tunneled and arrogant Christians can be. That element clearly still exists, as Proposition 8 in California recently learned, but it's not indestructible. Milk reminds us of what may, in fact, still yet be needed to grab hold of that last bit of equal rights.