Cannot speak to "social significance,relevance,etc.";can only speak to the movie itself

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2009)

I've sampled some of the other comments and this is another film that seems to inspire extreme opinions. While it seems to have plenty of more positive opinion,there are(naturally)going to be some WAY less than positive reviews,much of them,it seems,steeped in an adverse opinion about gays,Sean Penn,Hollywood and the media at large. I thought I'd address that because it seems like it would be rather dense and oblivious of me to ignore it.
Also,I know that there is plenty to this movie that would inspire any person who just saw it to become overwhelmed by this sense of almost social,political,even spiritual revelation and inspiration,a sort of sense of benediction toward a hero or revolutionary. Since I'm not gay and my memories of HArvey Milk,Prop 8,Anita Bryant or any element of the 1970s Gay rights movements is pretty sketchy at best,I'm afraid the social significance for me personally is mostly marginal.
So I,the reviewer,am basically left at examining this movie for exactly what it is: a big-budget,bio-pic during award season. As such,it largely works.
The story of activist and charismatic politico HArvey Milk(Sean Penn,much less "ACTING!" as he is sometimes want to do)picks up as he's a freshly forty gay man leaving behind his closeted life in New Yorck City with younger lover Scott Smith(JAmes Franco,really growing as an actor!) to re-build in the economically flipped,new gay haven that was early 1970s San Francisco. First as a business man in the CAstro district,then as a charismatic,socially winsome politician-wanna-be and self-appointed "Mayor of CAstro",Milk becomes steadily more and more energized as a type of activist. As his popularity grows,so does his controversy,and when he's finally elected to city counsel in 1977,he quietly knows he's a marked man,yet he's still compelled to act on his convictions.
The supporting cast is good,if not magnificent. Best turns seem to come from Emile Hirsch as an ambitious,"never knew he could be so passionate"gay youth and future activist Cleve Jones,Diego Luna as Milk's boyfriend during his election years,a hyper-depressed fem who threatens Milk's image constantly and Josh Brolin as DAn White,the straight-arrow rival counsel-man who's own personal conflicts regarding Milk(among other things) will create a combustive and fateful result.
OPenly gay director Gus Van Sant applies much of what he's known for:jump-cuts,narrative framing and lean,mean story-telling to frame what was journalist RAndy Shilts' facts(hemmed into a script by someone whose name right now escapes me)into a largely effective story. THe movie itself mostly suffers from some fairly common elements in bio-pictures(i.e. predictable arcs,foreshadowing that is as plain as day);not bad things,really,but stuff that has little distinction over what you might easily as soon catch in documentaries or even made-for-TV movies. It also is unabashedly carrying a sense of "agenda";not a Liberal/Conservative type of agenda,or even a personal experience agenda,but more of a "Great,flawed man + purity of conviction = sainthood". Again,not terrible things in and of themselves,but they constrict the viewing of this film to something of an either a "Soapbox" effect or a educational effect,which can just as easily alienate as enlighten. MAybe Van Sant figured those things to be the end product,but when a show becomes as critically acclaimed as MIlk has become,it muddies the waters and forces viewers who may not have a particularly clear opinion on the issues being broached to either accept or reject his movie,rather than absorb this as a real and commendable human issue struggle story.
Fantastic performances,solid soundtrack and a competent(if perhaps overly cut-and-dried)film make for not only award nominees but also fine entertainment. On that count,Milk largely succeeds.