Authentic, but derivative

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2009)

Sean Penn does an excellent job, and deserves all the acclaim he is getting. But the film itself? Sadly (and I haven't seen this noted very much in the Comments section), this is extremely derivative of the 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk." On the one hand, this makes it extremely authentic, but on the other hand, what was the point? The only point I can see (aside from making money, of course) was to tell Milk's story for mainstream audiences to see. Apparently, most have not yet seen the original documentary. For those who loved "Milk," I think you'll be shocked to see that it copied/recreated many, many parts of the documentary, including (but not limited to) the following:
1. Each film opens with Dianne Feinstein's announcement of the Milk and Moscone assassinations. 2. Each begins quoting from Milk's recorded will that should only be released if he were to be assassinated. 3. "Milk" recreates the scene of the press interviewing him the night he finally won election to the Board of Supervisors 4. "Milk" recreates the scene where Briggs gives his "21 Gun Salute" diatribe.
And on and on, and on. So this made it a bit of a disappointment to me. If I had never seen the documentary, I may have rated this higher. But I did see the documentary, so I was less impressed with the movie.