Milk: 3 stars

I remember seeing Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting in the theatres. It was one movie experience that became etched into my memory for some reason. I was sharply struck by the film and absolutely fell in love with it. Van Sant has since offended me and many other filmgoers with some strange and poor choices. It’s almost as if the self-editing function of his brain had been torn out. Well it is back and functioning for Milk, kind of, and due to the large amount of outstanding acting it is a very solid film.

Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office not just in California but also in America. Moving to San Francisco from New York City, Harvey and his partner Scott Smith opened up a camera store on Castro Street. This location would soon become the epicenter for the entire gay movement in the city and Milk became the spokesman. Milk understood that more could be done from within the system than simply fighting against the homophobic police and politicians and decided to run for office. Those of you who are familiar with the story don’t need an entire breakdown of what occurred and those of your who are not will be better served just watching the story develop on screen.

The most enjoyable part of this film was the acting. Sean Penn is indeed Academy Award worthy in his performance. It is controlled, nuanced and very real. You forget you’re watching Sean Penn. The supporting cast is stellar and award worthy as well. Emile Hirsch’s performance really stuck out to me. Hirsch plays Cleve Jones, a young boy recruited by Harvey to join his team and assist with activism and his campaign. Hirsch completely transformed into the person he was portraying. It was a pleasure to watch all of the fine acting; from James Franco to Josh Brolin everyone was perfect. If judged on acting alone my rating would have been four stars, however, something felt lacking to me.

There were times that I wished for a more detailed look at the man that Harvey Milk was. The film does a great job of documenting Harvey’s rise to activist and politician, as well as all of the events surrounding him, but everything was quickly brushed over. Van Sant also utilizes artistic transitions and real stock footage of the events and politicians that are contained in the story, however I feel at times this takes away from the courageous stories being told. I think the idea was to lend more authenticity, but the spliced footage and audio felt more like propaganda or documentary to me. There are hints of the motivations, past and history of Harvey Milk and his closest friends sprinkled throughout, but nothing is ever fully flushed out. Overall the film is touching, the story is engaging and the acting is brilliant, but I won’t be rushing to watch it again.

The most enlightening about this film for me is the fact that when originally advertised it made me realize that I had no idea who Harvey Milk was. Throughout approximately twenty years of public education, not once was the life or actions of Harvey Milk discussed along with the effect that he had on the treatment of homosexuals in our country. Although the film could have been more effective in portraying Harvey Milk the man, it painfully exposed to me the real tragedy that is Harvey Milk’s lack of representation, along with homosexuals in general, in our school’s history books. If other prominent political leaders and activists for many other minorities are covered I see no reason why Harvey Milk shouldn’t be as vastly included and revered in American History.