Review: Milk (2008)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                               MILK
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Gus Van Sant directs a powerful docudrama
     of the life and times of Harvey Milk, from coming
     to San Francisco to being elected city supervisor
     to being murdered along with the mayor of San
     Francisco.  The style is realistic and not overly
     polished.  This is a highly affecting film, and
     Sean Penn gives the most moving performance of the
     year of a very ordinary man whom history moved to
     greatness.  Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to a major office
in this country.  At age forty he moved from New York City to the
Castro section of San Francisco, lobbied for gay rights, and ran
for public office.  In fact, several times he ran for office
eventually being elected City Supervisor.  He had conflicts with a
mentally unbalanced City Supervisor named Dan White.  Eventually
Dan White settled his multiple conflicts by bringing a gun to City
Hall and murdering Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk.  Gus Van
Sant directs the story of Milk in a style is very much like
documentary footage.  Films like the current VALKYRIE and DEFIANCE
use a more dramatic style.  Van Sant does not understate his scenes
but he does not overstate them either.  One feels that this is an
authentic view into these lives.

The structure of the film is confused but not confusing.  Mostly is
seems to be Milk's reminiscences spoken into a tape recorder and
dramatized in flashback.  However, the narrative includes Milk's
death.  His reminiscences flash between his political and personal
lives.  His political life repeated pits him against self-righteous
opponents who identify their will with that of God.  Opponents
include State Senator John Briggs (Denis O'Hare), Anita Bryant
(played by herself in newsreel footage), and Dan White (Josh
Brolin).  Dustin Lance Black's script even does a reasonable job of
representing Dan White's position and even some truth to his
feelings of betrayal by Milk.  This film even has some sympathy for
its most negative character.  On the other hand, Milk's personal
life is more of a mess with multiple troubled relationships.  Milk
has a soft spot in his heart for the weak and the wounded.  At
times this brings him to the edge of scandal, but he seems to come
out untarnished.

I have never considered Sean Penn a particularly appealing actor.
He can be powerful, but until MILK he never played a character I
had much feeling for.  His Harvey Milk is powerful but also
vulnerable and funny.  He can be a political wheeler-dealer, and he
can sabotage himself for principle.  Penn gives a letter-perfect
performance of a complex figure.  He pulled me into the character
and made me feel for him.  When he died at the end there was a
feeling of loss.  In one scene Milk is rushing around doing
something political when he gets a phone call from a young gay man
in Minnesota.  Milk tries to brush him off.  As soon as the young
man mentions he is considering suicide Milk turns on a dime.
Saving this man in trouble is his first priority and there is no
second.  Milk as Penn plays him is tremendously likable and
sympathetic in ways that transcend his politics.  This is charm I
have never seen in Penn and this may well be the role Penn will be
remembered for.

There are several familiar faces peppered throughout including
James Franco of the Spider-Man films and FLYBOYS showing a more
vulnerable side.  Victor Garber, who played the builder of Titanic
in the film of the same name, exudes confidence as San Francisco
mayor Moscone.  The film's Dan White, Josh Brolin, brings some
unexpected sympathy to his role.  He may be familiar from MIMIC, NO
COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and perhaps AMERICAN GANGSTER.

MILK is a film about a man of courage and compassion. I rate MILK a
low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.  And it does not hurt a bit
to have liberal use of Puccini's spectacular music from his opera
Tosca.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/>

What others are saying: <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/milk/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper