Just like any other biography...

Rating: 7/10 (16 March 2010)

Harvey Milk is quite an important name in America's history, but an even more important name in the history of homosexuality. He was the first assumed gay to ever get a political job in the United States. And he did it in the conservative and controversial California of the 1970's. Harvey Milk is also well-known for his death in 1978, when he was shot by a political rival. With a life-story like this, it's impressive that took almost thirty years until Milk's story became a movie. But Gus Van Sant finally did it in 2008, with Sean Penn in the leading role. And the movie came out nice, but the problem is - it feels just like any other biography...
'Milk', obviously tells the story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn). But the movie only covers eight years of Milk's story, going from his first encounter with his later-to-be "husband" Scott Smith (James Franco) until his death in 1978, just when he was growing in the political career. Dustin Lance Black is the one who created the movie's screenplay (and even got an Oscar for it). He did a good job, but could have done a better one. I really liked the way the movie was told- with Milk narrating his own life-story in a videotape only meant to be opened in the event of his death. As Milk narrates, we get to see important moments of his life, both personal and professional. The more impressive is that this not a plot device - Milk actually recorded such a tape in late-1977. At first, I really liked the fact that the movie portrays only Milk's life from 1970 to 1978 - but then I was completely disappointed by it. Everything happens too fast in the first years of this period, and in the second half the movie only covers 1978. This left somethings weird, because there are lots of situations that could have been better developed. And even in this second half, I think the movie could better explain Dan White's (Josh Brolin) motivation to kill Milk. The movie also leads you to believe in things that didn't happened in real life - but this a problem with basically every other movie in the Biography genre.
One thing that I really enjoyed in 'Milk' was the casting. The movie is quite well-casted, and everyone seemed just like their life counterparts. This was achieved with an excellent makeup effect- at first, I couldn't really recognize who was who. But this effort in trying to cast look-alike's from the people in Milk's life compromised the acting itself. Almost the whole supporting cast did an average, if not bad, job. Little stars like Alison Pill, Diego Luna, James Franco or Lucas Gabreel couldn't hold their candles in Sean Penn's side. The only two members of the supporting cast that actually did a good job were the always-good Josh Brolin (in his first Oscar-nomination), and Emile Hirsch, that impressed me another time, after his good job in 'Into the Wild'. Better keep an eye in this kid. Of course, the whole attention here goes to Sean Penn, in the leading role of Harvey Milk. He impressed everyone with it, and got his second Oscar for this movie (only the ninth actor to achieve this accomplishment). Nothing more to say, except for: 'Well done, Mr. Penn'.
Gus van Sant also did an average job directing this picture. It's not his best work thus far- but it's not his worst either. He conducts Milk's story in his own way, and a couple of scenes bothered me a lot. It's undeniable that the man has style, I just don't appreciate it. If he made different choices in a few scenes, it would be much better. The scene of Milk's death- with the execution-like feel and the slow-motion was the scene that bothered more about the movie- along with the choice to do not show Dan White killing the mayor. Of course it's not all bad- the beginning in black and white and the speech's' scenes show all Gus Van Sant's talent. The editing here is also average, along with the cinematography and the Musical Score.
Overral, 'Milk' is a nice movie. Even though it feels just like any other biography, with very similarities in the movie of the genre, it has its own style. Gus Van Sant's directing did this, along with Dustin Lance Black's Original Screenplay. The acting, except for Sean Penn's marvelous job and Josh Brolin's nice work was quite average also. It's a nice movie, but could have been better- with better choices in both the direction and the writing.
A 6,5, that rounds up to a 7 only because of Penn.
7/10