A Man For His Times. . I have owned a copy of this film for a long time. I have probably watched it ten times, and I always tear up a little at each viewing. From the beginning newsreel, of a shell-shocked Diane Feinstein announcing the less than hour old murders of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, to the final reel of Harvey Milk's prophetic and haunting statements, the viewer is mesmerized. Though Harvey Milk was a San Francisco city supervisor, his election in the 1970's, that of an open and unrepentant gay man, made national headlines . He was a ray of hope to gay people everywhere, who at that time were unrepresented and, for the most part, still forced into the closet. This film not only gives insight into the philosiphy of Harvey Milk, but is a rare document into that not so long ago but seemingly ancient time. Milk was a very eloquent speaker, and his sensibility, logic, and unapologetic viewpoint more often than not made mincemeat of any verbal opponent. This is best displayed in the footage of his  debate with then California Senator Briggs, a buffoon like character, who not only was a terrible speaker, who couldn't even clearly express his arguably irrational fears, but who in fact seemed much prissier than his nemesis Milk. The public view at that time was about family values, with the Anita Bryants condeming homosexuals to Hell for their decadent ways (Old times come round again....). Milk's voice opposed this view openly, and he seemed to predict his early demise at the hands of an assassin who was against what he represented. The notion of this martyrdom, and its romantic though fateful attraction to Milk, has been argued. Nevertheless, his bravery in representing the unrepresented cannot be argued, and the sordid details of his love affairs and personal life should not diminish his message, nor the admiration he deserves. This film unfolds as it happened, seeming like fiction, but all too real. As Milk is assassinated, along with the Mayor, by the homophobic and disgruntled resigned supervisor Dan White, whose subsequent trial, with the famous "Twinkie Defense", and his being sentenced to an appalling five years for the murders, resulted in riots the likes of which the city had never seen. As one of those interviewed here expresses with sad resignation,... if only the Mayor had been killed, White would have gotten life, but the fact that Milk, a gay man, had also been killed, leaned public sympathy  towards White, an absurd but all too realistic conclusion.There are many moving, telling, historically signifigant moments in this film, but none so clearly represents those times, and Milk's loss and legacy, as the film of the nighttime march in San Francisco right after the murders. Seas of people, holding candles and standing silently, came together in a very moving moment in time. This film, which won best documentary at that years Oscars, transcends its subject matter, and is simply a great documentary. Gay rights have made much progress. And perhaps time has diminished their names and these memories to most all, excluding those who were there, are old enough to remember , or are gay.  Nonetheless, Harvey Milk is a representive and icon of the early gay rights movement, and his legacy, through schools named after him, organizations, and his place in history as a voice for the all too often voiceless, lives on.
Output: POS