Milk

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2016)

Gus Van Sant took on the crucially important subject matter of the openly gay activist who sought to give a voice to the oppressed with his 2008 film, Milk. Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and James Franco, Van Sant introduces audiences to Harvey Milk, who assembles the gay community and injects their ignored needs and rights into the political system. I was sure Milk was produced solely as Academy Award bait, and I could not have been more wrong or happier to be wrong. The 70's problems Milk discusses are in no way only a problem of the past making Milk as important to see today as it was in 2008.
On his 40th Birthday, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) realizes that he doesn't have any accomplishments to his name and seeks to change that. Energized and supported by his great love, Scott Smith (James Franco), Harvey steps out of the closet of New York, where he is from, and moves to San Francisco's emerging gay community to start a business. Immediately feeling push back from some of the closed-minded neighboring realtors, Harvey decides to run for office in hopes to have a positive effect on the business and living restrictions forced upon gay members of the community. After two unsuccessful campaigns for a City Supervisor Board position, Harvey finally finds success and wins the election while amassing a large and vocal support base finally giving purchasing power to the repressed group. As the film spans Harvey's rise to politics, we also get to see his personal relationships mature and develop as his base grows. The audience also sees each new repressive measure unleashed by the masses in hopes to repress the gay community. A particular foe, Dan White (Josh Brolin), has trouble dealing with what he sees as a betrayal of Harvey on a measure he discussed with him that White believed would help the people of his district that Harvey was unable to support. White proves to be an unstable foe and will affect Milk's rise to power and the gay community in ways no one anticipated.
Here is another backward narrative that I am so fond of. The film opens with Harvey narrating his history and letting the audience know what the end result is, but never making the revealed story anything less than engaging. Being a fan of technical aspects of a film, the most enjoyable part of the picture for me was what appeared to be a heavy reliance on hand-held cameras. Through most of the crowd scenes, it appears Van Sant used hand-held cameras to capture Harvey's activism. This was a brilliant decision by the director, allowing the audience to be as swept into the marching and protesting as the participants. There were also some excellent shots off reflective surfaces, as well. One shot that remains in the mind of the viewer is the one in which we see the body of a murdered man killed solely for his sexual identity reflected off the whistle he kept as the only measure of safety. Milk also flawlessly transitions between actual and filmed footage, a feat which often plagues a film. Sean Penn clearly immerses himself in the role, creating a wonderful characterization of the titular role. Milk neglects the safe route of being a film that is only made for Oscar fare and lasts as an important narrative that clearly addresses problems that still plague the nation today.