Review of Milk (2008) by Kevin D — 24 Oct 2012
It's pretty shocking just watching Sean Penn in the starring role here. I remember him as the violent father from Mystic River, the murderer in Dead Man Walking, and high school pothead Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Sean Penn's performance here is completely different from anything he has done before (you'll know what I'm talking about within the first 5 minutes).
Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office. While this film promotes the acceptance of gays, more importantly it is about tolerance of all people. Both the film and Milk himself showed that we have to accept people for who they are and that, "You gotta have hope!" Milk's other great line was, "My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you.".
The performances were all great and Penn definitely deserved his Oscar. Emile Hirsch and James Franco are used well in supporting roles and Josh Brolin picked up an Oscar nod for his turn as the villainous Dan White.
The movie is funny, powerful, and entertaining. The only flaws I found were that there were some inconsistencies in Hirsch's character and I thought the movie was just very good instead of being great.
This review of Milk (2008) was written by Kevin D on 24 Oct 2012.
Milk has generally received very positive reviews.
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