Sean Penn has pulled off an absolutely perfect performance in Van Sant's powerful biopic

Rating: 9/10 (2 February 2009)

Gay Rights has slowly become a thing of the past in modern society as diversity stretches to the deepest crevices of any ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Liberality is something that we take for granted indeed, yet society wasn't always liberal nor was it easy to gain it's liberality. People had to fightfor it, fight the government and most importantly fight for their reputation. Milk highlights the inspirational life of the first openly gay US government official, Harvey Milk and the struggle of homosexual acceptance in San Francisco and elsewhere in the USA.
Harvey Milk was a simple man, claiming that he had turned 40 and hadn't done anything worthy. Yet after he and his boyfriend move to San Francisco, he suddenly becomes embroiled in a heart-felt battle to fight for Gay rights through mass protests and publicity stunts. Milk slowly gathers a huge following and eventually achieves title of the first openly gay government official.
The carrier of this film is of course, Sean Penn. His performance was flawless, charming and completely magnanimous to the real persona of Harvey Milk. His mannerisms and body language have an outrageous similarity to Harvey Milk and Penn is by no means a camp man. Such in depth character study is extraordinary. Everything about Penn's performance was perfect, it wasn't overplayed and wasn't underplayed, just sheer perfection. In fact, I think Penn truly deserves the Oscar but I think Rourke's comeback performance in The Wrestler will get the Oscar, despite Rourke deserving it, I would prefer it to go to Penn.
Van Sant's flamboyant direction was also wildly enjoyable, I loved his blend of real documentary footage with the non-linearity of the story telling. It was also an interesting choice for the ending of the story to be told in not only the beginning of the film but also in the promoting of the film. The producers did this because Milk's fate isn't the point of the film; the point of the film is to capture the inspiration in this story of one man overcoming a nation of prejudice, hate and discrimination.
Milk illustrates the power of the gay rights movement in San Francisco whilst questioning our collective views of gays as victimised humans that are humans nonetheless.
Milk is emotionally raw, visually magnificent and awesomely performed, 9/10