Powerful and moving

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2008)

True story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and how he was elected as the first openly gay city councilor in San Francisco in 1978. It follows how he got there, how he got people to help him, his various campaigns before, his lovers Scott Smith (James Franco) and Jack Lara (Diego Luna) and his tragic murder (along with the mayor of San Francisco) by Dan White (Josh Brolin).
As an out gay man it's about time this was made by an openly gay director! At first I found Gus van Sant's flashy direction off-putting but it quickly pulled me in. The story was fast-moving and I was totally engrossed. The two hours flew by! Director van Sant expertly mixed actual footage of events with the ones he shoot--I almost never noticed the difference! They caught the 1970s (when this took place) head on--the ugly clothes and hairstyles were accurate. The acting is superb across the board--Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco and Alison Pill especially were incredible. Best of all was Sean Penn. He doesn't appear to be acting--he IS Harvey Milk! If this man doesn't (at the very least) get an Academy Award nomination there's no justice in the world. The only acting disappointment is Josh Brolin. He's a wonderful actor but we get no insight to his character--but then the movie isn't about him. The movie itself is shattering. I broke down crying three times--especially at the end (you also see actress Pill starting to loose it). Also, if you're worried about nudity, there's next to none here. Franco briefly bares his butt and Luna flashes his too--but that's it.
A wonderful if depressing motion picture. Everybody should see this one! I give it a 9. I wanted to give it a 10 but it's so ultimately depressing.