Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, the first openly gay official elected in California. It covers the period from his fortieth birthday to his assassination eight years later.
The film blends archival footage with movie footage so skillfully that the entire film has the feel of a documentary. After a while I scarcely noticed the switches between archive and movie. Milk captures the feel of its period (1970-78) very effectively and brought back many memories for me of those times in little details such as body type, clothing and hair styles.
The cast is strong and both Penn and Josh Brolin have been nominated for Academy Awards but for me the best performance is by James Franco.
It surprised me to realise that I was in San Francisco the same year that Harvey Milk was engaged in those political rallies in the lead up to his assassination and yet I know so little about the man.
I presume that Harvey Milk had negative aspects to his character but there is little evidence of them in the film.
I think the film is very moving and it brought tears to my eyes on three or four occasions. Very few films have had that effect on me.
Awesome! I'm so excited about seeing this movie. Plus, Josh Brolin is H.O.T. (check him out in The Goonies back in the 80's)
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the film, but isn't it uncanny how Penn actually looks like Milk?
ReplyDeleteMany years back, someone wrote an opera about Harvey Milk and I saw it performed in SF. Quite strange, actually...
I don't recall any really negative things about Milk in the biogs I have read. If it wasn't for Pride March, we would have seen it today. What a shame every review has spoiled the ending, not that it was nice.
ReplyDeleteEvol - Yes Brolin is hot, although less so (deliberately) in this film.
ReplyDeletewcs - the end credits show some of the real persons compared with the actors who perform them and in each case the resemblence is uncanny.
Andrew - the ending is well known and in any event the film tells you it in the opening minute, then it goes into flashback.
Even though just about anyone who sees this movie knows what the eventual outcome is, I think the movie would have been more powerful if the ending was shown at the end and not at the beginning. But that scene at the end of the movie of the endless candles was one scene that brought me to tears. Thankfully everyone stayed through the credits at the end of the movie, allowing my eyes to dry.
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