Review of The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) by Joe C — 02 Feb 2009

This is an incredibly moving documentary of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city official in America. The movie deals very little with his early life and concentrates instead on his runs for office and the big break he and other minority communities in San Francisco enjoyed when Mayor George Moscone advanced a plan for a system of district -- rather than citywide -- elections.

The film shows Milk's rag tag political campaign and juxtaposes him against Dan White, another young supervisor elected at the same time and representing more "traditional, mainstream" values. White would become disaffected, and he ultimately assassinated both Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone.This is an incredibly moving documentary of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city official in America. The movie deals very little with his early life and concentrates instead on his runs for office and the big break he and other minority communities in San Francisco enjoyed when Mayor George Moscone advanced a plan for a system of district -- rather than citywide -- elections.

The film shows Milk's rag tag political campaign and juxtaposes him against Dan White, another young supervisor elected at the same time and representing more "traditional, mainstream" values. White would become disaffected, and he ultimately assassinated both Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone.

I had of course heard of Milk (although I have not yet seen the Sean Penn film), but I was too young to be aware of all the events surrounding his rise and the aftermath of his killing.

I had no idea he only served in office for one year. And it was hard not to be moved by the images of the candlelight vigil in his memory filling Market Street for as far as the eye could see.

Lastly, the outrage over the travesty of justice in prosecuting Milk and Moscone's assassin was very real and present. Five-and-one-half years... That is all that Dan White got for this double assassination. He was "under pressure" and "eating too much junk food." (This is the case where the "Twinkie Defense" was used.) Who isn't and who doesn't?!?!?!

This film is important to see where the groundwork for some of today's struggles for full human rights was laid. The attempt to pass a ballot initiative to ban gay men and lesbians from teaching in the public schools (and which Harvey Milk helped defeat) seems like ancient history, but other struggles continue.

This film was instructive regarding the importance of building broad-based coalitions for change. I highly recommend it.

Available for free on Hulu.