Milk (2008)

Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival
footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his
40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a
camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay
community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political
alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign
manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the
city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's
relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide
initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs.

My mom went to see this, and she came home totally blown away. Sean Penn NAILED this performance (as if there would have EVER been any doubt).

I will, most likely, wait until it's on dvd, and then rent it.

Looks interesting. Too bad it didn't come out before the elections, maybe it would have opened some peoples eyes.

Took me a second but I realized I heard of Milk before. The dude who blew him and the mayor away basically got a slap on the wrist. It was called the 'twinkie defense'. Would be laughable if it wasn't so sad.

-HECK!

Seriously? Who shot him, and what kind of punishment did he get? I'd never heard of him before.

If you've never heard of the case or the Milk guy, then the movie might be ruined.

Possible spoiler, highlight from here... the guy Brolin plays was acquitted of two counts of murder, sentenced to voluntary manslaughter and got only 5 years, total.

-HECK!

For shooting the mayor of San Fran? Wow...

The jury was made up of religious and anti-gay folks for the most part. People were protesting and demanding dudes outright release. Riots ensued on both sides. It was a weird time.

-HECK!

Insane. I'm gonna look up more on this shit later.

Read about the case in high school. The guy said he binged on junk food the night before and since he always ate healthy in made him temporarily insane. Hence, the Twinkie Defense.

-HECK!

Just watched it. It was definitely a great movie, and very well put together. I was actually surprised, however, by WHO killed him and how it was done. For some reason I expected him to run up onto a stage and shoot at them both, rather than walking calmly into both of their offices and putting 3-5 bullets in each of them.

Cold and premeditated, man.

They had a brief mention of the lawyer's defense and his short sentence. But there was no focus on it. I was happy to read he killed himself shortly after being released (like 2 years or so after).

Yeah, he cashed out afterward.

Dude stalked Milk for sure. Reading about in school I was amazed that the judicial system could fail so horribly as recently as a few decades earlier.

Reminded me of how dirty South courts would barely slap the wrist of vile, racist murderers in the 50's.

-HECK!

You're not wrong. I liked the scenes where Milk was debating Briggs, who was the one who put forward that Resolution that would fire all gay teachers. I mean, the prejudice that was coming out of the dude's mouth was unbelievable. You couldn't get away with saying shit like that anymore. You'd be laughed off stage.

Finally saw this flick. Wasn't bad.

Sean Penn did really well. I don't recall seeing clips of Harvey Milk so I can't say how close the portrayl is, or if Penn was going for a realistic angle to begin with. Regardless, he was very convincing.

Creating that world on screen in those times was fascinating. The movie could have gone so many different ways. There were plenty of stories to tell. I felt it did a fine job of mixing in several elements with one constant- equal rights.

The one item of conention, and I wouldn't call it a flaw, is limited character development of Josh Brolin's character. I understand that the main antagonist of the movie is the anti-gay movement and prejudice, but Dan White was intergral in Milk's life, to say the least.

Overall I was satisfied with the film. I mentioned it before but it's a shame that it wasn't released a few weeks before the election.

I'll be honest on the gay aspect. Seeing full on man make out was a tad startling at first.

I'll give Milk a solid 'B'.

-HECK!