Interesting film - It played fast and loose with the facts

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2008)

I won't go over the ground covered by others - Sean Penn's performance, the interesting subject matter, and the fact that it must be inspirational for gay people to have a film that depicts them in a positive, moving way. My comments do not detract from any of that.
What I do object to is the murky screenplay, that plays very fast and loose with the facts and creates nothing but two-dimensional characters. From the opening scene where Harvey Milk picks Scott up in a subway, seduces him, and in the same breath, they move to San Francisco for the "first time", too much about the storytelling is unnecessarily simplistic and "made up." If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about, go read the wikipedia on Harvey Milk.
The very next night, I went to see a movie called Cadillac Records, a biopic about Chess Records and Muddy Waters and other great blues musicians, and the writer did the exact same thing.
Obviously, it is difficult to condense an entire life and its events into around two hours without taking some liberties. But it can be done successfully. Off the top of my head, the Lenny Bruce biopic starring Dustin Hoffman is a great example of a biopic with a serious subject that hits it out of the park without the cheap two-dimensional storytelling of this film.
On the whole, the world is a better place thanks to the existence of this film. People can learn much from the film and be entertained. But it is sad that the creators of this film don't trust the audience by sticking more to the real story, and taking us below the surface narrative to give us some real insights into the characters, particularly and including, Harvey Milk.