History brought alive.

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2009)

Despite its theme, this is a pretty straight movie  a straightforward biopic, that is, from Gus Van Sant, a director with a varied bag of credits. It is also a thoroughly satisfying piece of work. It is not just Sean Penn's energetic Oscar winning performance  he did something similar as a Huey Long-type demagogue in a re-make of "All The King's Men" a few years ago which was a complete flop. The supporting characters are well drawn and the dynamic atmosphere of San Francisco in the 70s is beautifully evoked. Similar things happened in other big cities around the world in the same period, not the least here in Sydney, but the San Francisco story was given special poignancy because of Milk's eventual assassination.
That's not a spoiler by the way, since it's pretty clear from the start what's going to happen. Harvey didn't want to die in the cause of gay liberation, but he was prepared to. His nemesis, ex-policeman Dan White, nicely played by Josh Brolin, is motivated by jealousy as much as anything else. He is a dull underachiever who has gravitated into politics after failing elsewhere  the anti-gay ideology merely a convenient posture. The result of the California-wide poll on the anti-gay proposition 6 in 1978 indicates that White got it wrong  most Californians were not as homophobic as he thought. Milk himself thought White was probably a closet case.
While the film gives a pretty positive picture, it does not shy away from Milk's shortcomings. A volatile and emotional man, Harvey found it hard to advance his political career and maintain his personal relationships at the same time. After the third or fourth unsuccessful campaign, Scott Smith (James Franco), his long time lover, walked out, and his next partner Jack Lira (Diego Luna), admittedly unstable, committed suicide. But Harvey plugged on, and had he lived, given the peculiar demographics of San Francisco, might well have become mayor. True, there was the inevitable conservative backlash, but 30 years on we can see a vast improvement in the status of gay people in most first world countries. This is a fine film and a fitting tribute to someone who indeed made a difference. The Oscar winning1984 documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" told the story, but this film brings Harvey to life again.