Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs.
Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Romance
Runtime: 128 minutes
Rating: 7.9/10 (37,650 votes)
Release Date: 28 October 2008
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Focus Features
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.
Director(s): Gus Van Sant
Producer(s):
Dustin Lance Black – executive producer
Bruce Cohen – producer
Barbara A. Hall – executive producer
William Horberg – executive producer
Dan Jinks – producer
Michael London – executive producer
Bruna Papandrea – executive producer
Writer(s):
Dustin Lance Black – (written by)
Cast:
Sean Penn – Harvey Milk
Emile Hirsch – Cleve Jones
Josh Brolin – Dan White
Diego Luna – Jack Lira
James Franco – Scott Smith
Alison Pill – Anne Kronenberg
Victor Garber – Mayor George Moscone
Denis O'Hare – State Senator John Briggs
Joseph Cross – Dick Pabich
Stephen Spinella – Rick Stokes
Music: Danny Elfman
Tagline: His life changed history. His courage changed lives.
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It's evident that some time and passion has been put into the movie"Milk". It delves into some important issues and milestones for gayrights, however, the movie moves at what seems a slugs pace. I fellasleep on the initial watch and had to revisit back to midway to watchagain. The character Harvey Milk in the movie is interesting, driven,and determined, but the story has an awful lot of empty protest scenes.There's really little insightful or stirring when watching video ofprotests – it's always a bunch of people screaming about something anda bore. The debates were portrayed at least were more interesting. Alsothe movie, admirably gives the religious arguments their share of timeendeavoring to show a more historically accurate-type context. Actingwas pretty good, and for especially Penn deservedly wins an Oscar. Heshows a lot of poured energy into his character and real life activist.
Milk is nothing more than a character study. It focuses exclusively onthe life of Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay politician in the UnitedStates. Unfortunately, Sean Penn portrays Milk as a one-dimensionalcaricature akin to a SNL sketch. So, if Milk offers us nothing morethan a character study, and there isn't any character to study, I aminclined to believe that the film is about nothing.
Sure, there are some social criticisms mentioned. But they are genericand almost literally spelled out for the audience (ex. "Be yourself").
Despite these fatal criticisms of the main performance and script, theAcademy honored both with an Oscar.
Weird.I have to be honest…I wasn't very PRO to gay people.Itought-God created a man and a woman…if gay people are bound tobe,why weren't there two Adams or two Eves?But i've seen this movie.andI got interested in Harvey Milk.I read the article on him fromwikipedia and I must say…I'm impressed.I mean,we just don't know.Itmay be religioulsly wrong,and it may not be.Anyway,the point is thatthis film really made me thing about things.It changed my opinion.Itimpressed me,just like the true story of Harvey Milk.And that is what agood movie is made for.To impress!
Watch it!You won't regret
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