Encouraging people to come out of the closet

Rating: 9/10 (8 December 2016)

This is a biopic about Harvey Milk, a person I only remember through a news item---when he was killed along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber). Their assassin, Dan White (Josh Brolin), will probably be best remembered for the 1979 trial in which his attorney tried to use something that would later be known as the "Twinkie defense." As the movie begins, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), is on the verge of his 40th birthday and feels that he has done nothing with his life. He meets his partner and soon-to-be campaign manager, Scott Smith (James Franco), in a NYC subway station. They move to San Francisco and open a camera shop in the predominately gay district called the Castro. Harvey becomes a gay-rights activist and attempts to run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. After three attempts, and much work to politically organize his district, he is elected as the first openly gay candidate ever to be elected in America (in 1977). During his political career, he encourages a large number of people to come out of the closet and declare their gayness openly.
After seeing this movie, I put the 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, at the top of my Netflix queue since I wanted to see more about Milk and see how well Penn portrays him in this movie. The only thing that I don't look forward to is Harvey Fierstein's narration: I don't like his grading voice. In any case, Sean Penn gives a natural, and convincing performance.