The Messiah of Castro Street

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2009)

I can't say that I have ever been much of a fan of Sean Penn as an actor. Despite all the praise he has gotten over the years, he has never been able to convince me that any of his characters are real. Even while watching him in his best films, MYSTIC RIVER and DEAD MAN WALKING, I always found myself thinking "This would be so much better with a better actor in the part." As such, I must grudgingly admit that he is absolutely wonderful in MILK. The awkward method mannerisms that plague most of Penn's work, and make his acting look like acting, are gone; he seems to melt into the character of Harvey Milk, an emotionally soft, but politically tough activist who somewhat reluctantly became the voice of the gay rights movement.
Told in the usual this-happened-that-happened fashion of most film biographies, MILK is an efficiently told story, which nonetheless proves to be deeply moving. As much as it chronicles the growing public life of Harvey Milk, it also becomes the unfolding history of the gay rights movement as it grew in power and purpose during the 1970s. This is just, as Milk is a substantial part of that history; first because he made headlines as the first openly gay man to garner an important elected office, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. And because of his death at the hands of a political rival. His growing influence earned him the title of The Mayor of Castro Street. His untimely death made him the Martyr of Castro Street. To some extent, the film portrays him as the Messiah of Castro Street, a soft-spoken, gentle and fundamentally decent Christ-like purveyor of inspiration.
Castro Street was the mecca of gay life in the 1970s, first for gay people in San Francisco and then for the country as a whole. It was a small section of San Francisco which offered a semi-safe haven for gay people who wanted to feel protected and accepted. Milk landed there in the early part of the decade and opened up a small camera shop amid the gay bars and bookstores. As a gay merchant he felt left out of the system. As a gay man he felt left out of society. Feeling something should be done, he ran for office and, after three failures, won. His low-key, ingratiating style helped to establish him as a high-profile personality and the epitome of "we're here, we're queer, get used to it," a man who could be both forceful and non-threatening. His success at establishing gay rights laws gave him clout across the country, a voice the media could turn to as conservative anti-gay factions formed.
Through the skillful use of news footage and recreation, director Gus Van Sant does a solid job of encapsulating a movement into two hours of cinema. He presents the anti-gay entities, such as Anita Bryant, with impersonal fairness, never resorting to cheap ridicule – though it is clear where his sympathies lie. Dealing with, but not dwelling on Milk's personal problems, the film interweaves Milk's private life with his growing activism, until his public persona overwhelms his personal life. As such, the film does seem a bit superficial in its portrait of Milk; much of the power of the story lies in the newsreel footage and the realization that the extraordinary events that are recreated are true. This leaves it up to Penn to fill in the blanks. He does so with assurance. Penn convincingly shows us Milk as being a quiet, reticent little man who learned to use his non-threatening image as a means of winning supporters, while becoming savvy to the ways of manipulating the media. Though he is supported by an ensemble of fine actors -- James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, etc. -- it is Penn who carries the film.