"Without hope, life's not worth living." "Without hope, life's not worth living."

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2012)

I won't go into the legacy of Harvey Milk except to say that he was a champion for the LGBT community, especially in his efforts to get everyone to be honest and come out of the closet so that all of us could see that we had friends, relatives, teachers, and others in our lives that were gay, and that was OK.
I won't say anything about the slime on the right depicted in this film except to say that their plan backfired. Yes, the battle for equal rights for all Americans is still being fought, and battles will continue to be lost along the way, but right will win in the end.
The movie was excellent, and I really liked the way news footage from the period was intertwined seamlessly to make the experience more real.
Josh Brolin was very good and there was a tortured underbelly that was not revealed. Maybe I am just to the point that it never surprises me when a right wing bigot turns out to have secrets.
Sean Penn was magnificent. He was Harvey Milk, and he was the movie. Everyone else just supported his superb performance. I was not surprised that he got an Oscar for his performance.
An excellent movie. Not superb, but well worth seeing. In fact, I think I want to see it again.