But Milk is at the heart of everything that happens here. We see his own mixed-up personal life, from the moment he meets one lover in the New York subway system, to the suicide of a second lover. Penn doesn't try to make him some kind of mythical hero but his fundamental decency always comes through. Not so for his opponents, especially the noxious, self-righteous Anita Bryant (where did she disappear to??) who campaigns to fire all homosexual teachers.
This movie, although it has a sad ending, is never depressing and gives us hope that we have come a long way since then in the struggle for basic fairness for gay people, although there is still a long way to go.
Another great character role for Sean Penn - Newton Ooi - Phoenix, Arizona United States
Every decade, Hollywood has an actor that takes the tough roles and turns them into great movies. For the past 10 years, this would probably be Sean Penn. With classics such as 21 Grams, Mystic River, and now Milk, Sean Penn has progressed far from his bad boy days and is now one of the best American actors. Milk is Penn's portrayal of the political career of Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the USA. Starting in NYC and ending in the Bay Area around San Francisco, this movie shows how the closeted gay Mr. Milk became openly gay, and then a gay rights crusader who took on big political honchos in California and the US national scene. All the major characters from Milk's later life are included in this movie, though the movie does not mention anything about his family. I would normally give this movie 5/5 stars, but the inclusion of numerous gay love scenes was quite gross, and quite have been easily excluded without taking away for the movie. Hence the 4/5 stars instead. But overall, a good portrayal of how local politics works, the gay rights movement, and good commentary on American society in general.
I'm gay, but I'm a history nut, so I have to be honest, it's a miss! - M. Pope - San Francisco
I'm gay, but I'm a history nut, so I have to be honest, it's a miss. I would never hire someone portrayed as the second main character in a film to be it's historical consultant (Cleve Jones). They should rename this film MILK & CLEVE. I guess the unknown screenwriter was able to get Gus Van Sant as director because he knew Cleve who knew Van Sant, another reason why Cleve is so prominent as a hero.
I didn't think there was much particularly more than average about this film. The score was un-inspired, the screenplay boring, the directing average, the sound recording was bad at times and I could not understand the dialogue at times, the cinematography was average. The acting...well, there were few characters I believed, and if they weren't portraying real life and death situations, I would not have cared what happened to them. I sense Harvey had many flaws as do we all, particularly those so ambitious, but we did not see many of them. That's why he does not seem real. I am not a big Sean Penn fan, but the best movie I saw him do was a true story about about stealing tractors in Tennessee many years ago, with Johnny Depp? Either Harvey was a very cold fish with his lovers, or Sean Penn should not portray gay characters. The little affection shown was not believeable. The crazy lover who commited suicide played by Diego Luna was one of the only believable actors in the film. Even the "tough dyke" was too nice! Anita did do good job of portraying herself!
Watch the Life and Times of Harvey Milk documentary instead!
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