Got Milk? Got Best Actor? Got Best Original Screenplay?

Posted by ScuzzBuster

February 22, 2009

Better late than never I finally caught up with Milk just prior to the Oscars. While the film is an incredible piece of work, it’s really the leading performance that is the pivot point for the film. Sean Penn is a chameleon of an actor. Having seen him in a multitude of roles dating all the way back to Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, it’s my biggest compliment to say that I have no idea who Sean Penn is when he steps outside a film frame.

Whatever role Penn takes he completely disappears into. Milk is no different. Though the face is recognizable there’s no sense that what’s happening here is a performance. Penn’s work is a stroke of brilliance that really counterpoints this bold and inspiring story.

The film itself deserves credit and recognition for not softening the subject matter or trying to dumb down or gloss over the homesexual culture in San Francisco in the 1970s. It simply shows it in the stark light of reality. Friendships, relationships, romances and completely screwed up and complicated visions of romance, sex and social problems paint the back story of the first gay elected official in U.S. History.

The story chronicles how Milk begins an organization effort in San Francisco’s Castro district in the early 70’s as a small business man to give the heavily discriminated against gay population a voice in the community. The subject matter itself notwithstanding, it’s a testimonial to proving the question of whether one person can make a difference. In this case, it not only answers this with a resounding “yes,” but it shows how important it was that this particular man did.

Harvey Milk ran for a San Francisco City Supervisor position for one reason, because he realized the need for the gay community to have serious representation and a voice. In the early 1970s, civil rights for this group were virtually non-existent. One of the film’s focal points is the battle to defeat “Proposition 6” in California that would have made it legal for people in certain professions to be discriminated against and/or terminated from certain jobs like teachers if they were openly homesexual. Of course, the timing of the film itself was apropos with the gay marriage issue “Proposition 8” on the ballot in last year’s election.

Despite the struggles of the gay community to continue to be recognized with full basic human rights, the contrast of the current struggle with the struggles in Milk does show how much progress has been made in the last 30 years. The story of Harvey Milk counterpoints how important he was in jump starting that progress.

The story is told in a compelling manner by director Gus Van Sant, but the excellence of it’s execution comes in the form of it’s lead performances, most notably by the astoundingly good Sean Penn, but also by incredible work by James Franco as one of Milk’s lovers and Josh Brolin who gives a textured supporting performance as one of the other city supervisors that ends up playing a key part in Milk’s story.

The visual effects work was also outstanding in the intense scene where James Franco dons the iconic green mask and flies his glider into the middle of the gay demonstration on the steps of City Hall and starts pummeling the protestors with pumpkin grenades. Shit, getting my James Franco roles mixed together. Sorry about that. That didn’t happen in this film.

If nothing else, Milk is really a reminder of how even though we live in a country that was founded on a document that proclaims that “all men are created equal” that so many have to struggle just to attain the basic rights that most of us enjoy. In these cases, some bold and courageous individuals have to make harsh sacrifices up to and including that ultimate one so others can have even a long shot at fulfilling the truth of that declaration.

Unfortunately, this film isn’t going to inspire any of those people that struggle to ensure that regardless of how equal we were created that some aren’t as equal as the rest of us, and that’s a shame. I believe that Milk should and will survive as an excellent snapshot of a focal point in the struggle for equal rights and against discrimination in the United States.

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