The past, the past; save us from the past.

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2009)

Diane and I watched this absorbing film at Luna SX yesterday and we both shared the same feelings for Van Sant's brilliant film. She and I left San Francisco the year Milk first ran for Supervisor in '73 after having lived there for some time so the film was a marvellous look back at an era that has now become a dusty memory. I am not first-hand familiar with the events after Milk's election and death but was in The City before the Castro was the Castro as it is now; before the Haight lost its way and when the street cars were still green and cost a dime to ride. I was totally involved in the film; it could have been made in any city because the location did not matter ( except for the progressiveness of the post-Beat and Hippie lifestyle); the actors led by Sean Penn became the people they portrayed. I left San Francisco before Harvey Milk became known but after seeing some of the footage of him, mixed with Penn's film footage, I am convinced that the Academy was absolutely right in its decision to award Penn the Best Actor award.
I thought the movie was paced perfectly; Van Sant kept the tension high throughout the movie. I did not realise that there was so much conservatism in San Francisco at the time. I did not realise that homophobia was so rife because now conservatives across America believe firmly that The City is Hell itself and many would be quite happy if it were expunged from the country all together. I should, in hindsight, not be so surprised because it was common before I left to see bumper stickers reading," AmericaLove It or Leave It" so I took the hint and left; Milk didn't and the rest, as they say, is history.
We thought that Milk was a brilliant movie; a mixture of history, powerful politics and superb acting, particularly by Sean Penn. I hope that the American heartland comes to grip with itself, grow up a little and stop seeing visions of evil hiding throughout the homes. Milk shows that political and social growth can occur but only if that evil hand of religion stays gloved and in churches.