A Poignant Look at a Great Man, as Well as Sean Penn's Greatest Performance

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2018)

Milk is a biography drama film that tells the story of Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist who became the United States' first openly gay elected official, up until his assassination by Dan fellow city supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant, and he does a really, really solid job. From the very opening of the film, it's clear what this film's intent is- to get you invested in Harvey's life, what happened to him, and the plight of the gay community in San Francisco at in the 1970's. This is all achieved, in quite a brilliant way. Harvey's political career was cut extremely short, as he didn't begin running for office until his forties and he was only city supervisor for eleven months, but his impact was felt. He was the leader of the movement that was taking place in San Francisco at the time. It is clear that Van Sant really does try to keep the film historically accurate, and it does not appear that there are any fabrications to the story, although it is clear to anyone with knowledge on Harvey and his life that some things have been cut out. The film opens with Harvey meeting Scott Smith, his longtime boyfriend, the night of his fortieth birthday, so anything that happened in his life before that point is not explored, although this really works to the films merit.
The way this narrative is woven throughout the film is what makes it such a strong piece. In the beginning, it is explicitly said what is going to take place by the end of the film, so that the meat of the viewer's focus is brought to the events as they take place, and how we get to the eventual outcome. The performances here are fantastic, with Sean Penn's sincere and bubbly performance as Harvey Milk being one of the best of his career. His chemistry with James Franco as Scott Smith is also just fantastic. The people around Harvey, his political team and his friends, are incredibly likeable, interesting, and well acted. The story and time setting of this film is what really sells it. It is extremely engaging, very well thought out, and establishes an absolutely great symphony of different moods throughout its duration. The costume design and the way in which this movie is shot really establishes the time period of this film extraordinarily well. There's shots during scenes in which Harvey's giving speeches from a crowd, that are either shot from a crane overhead or from right in the crowd, which are incredibly engaging, and establish mood very well. There are a lot of very memorable scenes in this film that really compel the viewer to sympathize with the movement, and Harvey's dedication to being able to not just be gay, but openly gay in America. Harvey's occasional narration through tape recorder is a great technique to keep the story moving, and it adds great depth to his character. While the dialogue is pretty well written, every now and again it feels a little manufactured, with dialogue setting up the next event, but it's still very serviceable and not too distracting. It's not only a landmark in biography and LGBT film, but an important historical film as well. I absolutely love this film. 9.0/10