One of the big screen's best biographical pictures

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2009)

San Francisco councilman Harvey Milk was assassinated by his fellow board supervisor Dan White in 1978. I am not giving anything away by saying that "Milk" ends with an assassination attempt. It is one of the greatest death scenes in mainstream Hollywood film, as played out in deadly showdown chicanery by terrific Sean Penn (Milk) and Josh Brolin (White) performances. We all know the outcome of the confrontation but it appears with such a sleight of hand it blindsides us all. Those of us who fell in love with director Gus Van Sant's previous movie "Paranoid Park" and interpreted the corridor walk Dan White undertakes beforehand to be directly parallel with the young skateboarder's school stroll might anticipate it. Both ended up committing murder, yet no two murders could be any different. Mr. White pleaded his innocence at the later trial by claiming an irregular diet of junk food had caused his hormones to flare out of control. The burden he was carrying, however, pales in comparison to Mr. Milk's story. Surviving the suicide of multiple lovers, shockingly, barely makes the footnote section.
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