Film about a great human rights advocate

Rating: 8/10 (25 February 2009)

As a European I had never heard of Harvey Milk until I read about this film. Following all the excellent reviews I decided to see it and I wasn't disappointed.
The film is about the struggle for human rights and the major part one man played in it in 70's America.
We meet Harvey in New York as he makes the decision to go the San Francisco to do something with his life as he reaches 40. There he sees the discrimination against the gay community by the City authorities and the police. He decides the best way to fight this is by gaining elected office. He is charismatic and intelligent and gathers an enthusiastic and capable team around him. After a few defeats he is elected to the SF Board of Supervisors as the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in the US. Once in office he is true to his word and campaigns for the people who elected him, in particular against Proposition 6, which wanted to prevent gay teachers from working in schools. The film shows one great speech where he reminds people of the rights enshrined in the US Constiution and written on the Statue of Liberty and says that he is fighting for those rights to be protected. He is also shown to be a tough politician, always considering the best way to get his policies adopted, with all the associated horse-trading if necessary. Harvey's life was to end in tragedy at the hands of a former supervisor.
I really enjoyed this film. It captured the atmosphere of 70's San Francisco really well, getting across the excitement of the time. It also shows us Milk's private life and how it affected his public life and vice versa.The performances are all excellent, especially from Sean Penn.