A great portrayal of a gay rights icon

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2017)

Gus Van Sant's Milk follows the story of out gay San Francisco City Council member Harvey Milk and his eventual assassination at the hands of fellow councilmember Dan White. Following the Oscar award winning screenplay writing by Dustin Lance Black, Milk successfully explores the later life of Harvey Milk as he battles against Proposition 6 in California, the fight for antidiscrimination protections for LGTBQ people, and creating a world in which gay people can be safely out anywhere. While it is by no means perfect, sometimes exaggerating the role Harvey played and underwhelmingly portraying the opposition, overall, Milk is a film that helps provide the education and exposure that display a pro-gay view of history and show activists like Harvey Milk in a way that benefits the gay rights movement and community.
Milk starts by opening with historical footage of police raids and then immediately lets the cat out of the bag by showing the announcement to the press that Dan White had shot and killed San Francisco mayor, George Moscone, and fellow councilmember Harvey Milk. By informing the audience of Harvey's inevitable demise early in the film, it turns the focus of the film away from Harvey's death at the hands of Dan White and instead sets the film up to push its narrative towards Harvey's contributions to the gay rights movement in the mid-1970s, forcing the film and the audience to see what the world lost when Harvey Milk was killed. After the historical footage, Milk turns to the last decade of Harvey Milk's life in the 1970s. On his 40th birthday, Harvey meets his first lover in the movie, Scott Smith, who eventually becomes the campaign manager for his run for San Francisco City Council. Moving to San Francisco, Harvey develops into an activist and decides to run for political office After unsuccessfully running for a seat in the city council twice, and due to redistricting, Harvey is able to win the seat for his district, the newly created District 5, representing the well-known gay Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. As a City Council member, he worked alongside Dan White and Harvey's liberal views clash with Dan's more conservative Catholic views. Harvey, after his relationship with Dan White sours because Harvey would not support one of Dan's bill, is able to propose and help pass an antidiscrimination ordinance for LGBTQ people in housing and employment in San Francisco. Next, Milk turns its attention towards California's Proposition 6, sponsored by California Senator, John Briggs, and elevated to national attention with the help of signer-turned-religious-activist Anita Bryant. Proposition 6 attempted to ban all homosexuals from teaching and possibly also remove anyone who supported LGBTQ people. All the while, Dan White, struggling with the financial instability of his failing business and low government salary and disheartened by the values of the political world of San Francisco, submits his resignation from the council. He later attempts to rescind his resignation, but Mayor Moscone refuses to reinstate him, after being petitioned by Harvey. This leads to the closing events of Milk, portraying Mayor Moscone and Harvey's murder by Dan and the candlelight vigil, attended by thousands, held for Harvey Milk.
Overall, I enjoyed Milk. I found Harvey's speeches inspiring and felt that I was watching Harvey resonate not only with the San Francisco gay community, but also LGBTQ people and straight people across America. Being gay myself, I wanted to learn more about LGBTQ history, but the traditional routes of schooling available to me were very lacking in LGTBQ education, let alone positive LGBTQ history. Milk treats me to the story of a politician who broke barriers and fought for the rights of people like me. Milk shows Harvey working through the religious and social discrimination that LGBTQ people experienced in the 1970s to promote important changes like San Francisco's gay rights ordinance and to prevent backwards legislation like Proposition 6, treating viewers to a positive take on Harvey's legacy and one of the few mainstream pro-gay films based on a true story.
However, Milk was not a perfect portrayal of Harvey Milk or the gay community at the time. Harvey's sexuality and the sexuality of gay life as a whole is portrayed in a diminished capacity, showing Harvey in particular as much more of a monogamous individual than history knows to be true. This may have been intentional, as Milk was released in 2008 only two months after California's Proposition 8 is passed, banning gay marriage again after it was made legal from a court ruling in May, 2008 and also in the midst of a Presidential election in which both candidates expressed opposition to gay marriage, although then presidential candidate Barack Obama supported civil unions at the time. Milk also gives Harvey almost all of the credit for the fight against Proposition 6, making the Castro, pre-Harvey, seem to have no other organizations successfully fighting for gay rights in San Francisco. In reality, Harvey had assistance from grassroots organizations that had formed nearly a decade before Harvey was elected as City Councilor.
Despite a couple criticisms, Milk and its portrayal of LGBTQ people and their concerns in the 1970s is accurate, positive, and is a great film. It provided the mainstream, straight audience a look into a community most history books dedicate little or no time to and lifts a gay rights hero to a worldwide stage where all can see the early fight for basic civil rights for LGBTQ individuals. I wholeheartedly recommend Milk.