It's got my vote

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2009)

Gus Van Sant's "Milk" has such a resounding ring of truth to it that I don't feel like I'm exaggerating when I say that not a great deal has changed in America since Harvey Milk was assassinated. Just recently, Californians voted to prevent gays from marrying. Now, I'm not gay or a minority, but is it anybody's business what two people in love do with their lives? It's another subject, I know, but this brilliant film got me all riled up in the best possible way. It also pains me to say that had Milk and his allies not fought tooth and nail for gay rights, there wouldn't be any. The system's default is to oppress minorities, demonize gays, and push religious doctrine down every throat they can force open.
Thanks to Sean Penn, who sinks his all into the character of Harvey Milk, we ride the man's shoulder right up to his tragic demise. When I heard that Penn would be playing Milk, my expectations were high. Penn and Gus Van Sant met them.
After achieving what no other gay man ever did in American politics, Milk reluctantly locked horns with Dan White (Josh Brolin), a bigoted, conservative family man who saw Milk as an affront to his front and a threat to a wider constituency. Milk fought to prevent employers from being able to fire a worker based solely on their sexual proclivity. White wouldn't give Milk his vote. Dustin Lance Black's screenplay doesn't suggest it explicitly, but I sensed that White was fighting demons that his relationship with Milk shone a blinding light on. It was a fight no mediation could repair. So he shot the guy.
This is rousing, angry cinema that doesn't become so hysterical and dogmatic that it stampedes over its own message.