equal in strength and virtue to The Times Of Harvey Milk

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2008)

The feature film which has empowered me most to be happy as a gay man and equal rights activist was the Robert Epstein documentary "The Times Of Harvey Milk". Having just recently enjoyed the Australian release of the fully restored 25th anniversary DVD I was well placed to compare that carefully crafted documentary to Gus Van Sant's equally skillfully crafted biopic "Milk". There's no doubt in my mind that they're both equally capable of changing the world for the better by opening hearts and minds, and stirring people out of their complacency to help fix all the anti-gay oppression which still festers across the globe in almost every nation - including the USA and Australia.
Sean Penn turns in a Best Actor Academy Award performance - he lives and breathes, moves and grooves, loves and erupts as Harvey Milk. All the supporting cast are up the task too. I am especially impressed by the way that Gus Van Sant hasn't flinched at giving us a view of Harvey Milk's life through a decidedly queer lens. The audience isn't being pandered to, no matter what their personal sexuality. We're given time portal access to real life in Harvey's experience of those angst wrought years of the seventies. We're reminded that life is short and every single day counts vitally as an opportunity to achieve maximum good in the world.
I was really quite disappointed to see James Franco on Letterman (late November '08) say that he had voted with firm conviction against Proposition 8 in the November 2008 ballot, but he wasn't sure whether he would have opposed 1978's "Proposition 6" (which would have banned gays and lesbians, and possibly anyone who supported gay rights, from working in California's public schools.) When Franco can play the part of such an informed gay activist and still miss the point of the issue so widely, it shows that there is an enormous proportion of the general public who need to see this fine feature film, to understand its message and then put into practice the knowledge that there is absolutely no substitute for equality.
I would hope that "Milk" will have the same level of beneficial impact for all viewers, not just us queers (or whatever descriptive you happen to choose).