Milk (2008)

Gus Van Sant ably directs this bio-pick of Harvey Milk, an opera loving camera shop owner who became the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, and was later assassinated by a fellow member of the San Francisco city council. At age 40 Milk was a mostly closeted insurance man, but then with his lover Scott Smith (James Franco) moved to San Francisco in 1972, and after 3 unsuccessful runs for public office was finally elected to the city council in 1977, after re-districting left him running in a neighborhood composed mostly of “homosexuals and hippies” (though interestingly he’d build a political collation including union works, senior citizens, and racial minorities).

The timing for this film couldn’t haven’t been more symbolically providential, as the last act deals largely with a 1978 California ballot measure known as Proposition 6. Prop 6 would have resulted in the firing of all homosexual employees, and their sympathizers, from the states public school system. The measure was interestingly opposed by both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and ultimately went down to a stunning defeat. However said proposition also marked one of the first major legislative efforts of what would later be termed the ‘religious right‘.

Sean Penn gives a heck of a performance as Harvey Milk, an innately capable and charismatic individual who managed to focus a life time of feeling second class into a breakthrough political movement, though at the ultimate cost of his life. The whole film builds wonderfully well, we know at the start where this all is heading, they tell us in the first few minutes, but to see Milk push head long and willing into his ultimate destiny is the stuff of inspirational films. A supporting cast including Josh Brolin, Alison Pill and Emile Hirsch are consistently excellent, and the film just kind of soars on a cock-eyed (no pun intended) optimism. One of the best films of the year. 5 out of 5.