Milk

Milk (2008)



"We lost, but only a few votes shy of my becoming the first big-eared, cock-sucking, queer as a three-dollar bill man to be elected to public office."

A dramatization of the last eight years of openly gay politician Harvey Milk's life.

I have a natural aversion to biopics. I expect them to be dry and scholarly. A few elements drew me to this one. I like Gus Van Sant, I like Sean Penn, and obviously, the subject matter concerns me personally.

The thing is, I don't like considering upsetting things. I was born in a small town, but I moved to the big city, where I can pretend homophobia doesn't exist. I hear people talk about gay history, and the things people like Harvey Milk accomplished, and I shrug. Why would I need to think about that stuff? I'm living the life I want as a gay man.

But I feel richer after seeing this movie. I was reminded how easy - and wrong - it is to dismiss history. I think every gay person who didn't live through these events would benefit from seeing this movie. It doesn't taste like medicine; rather, it's a captivating story.

It falls into a few typical biopic traps, such as being a bit too slick at times, sometimes having characters explain each other ("Harvey, what's with all this political activist crap?"), and introducing threads it ends up not being able to develop properly (including Milk's hispanic lover). But to its credit it resists the temptation to demonize Milk's murderer, Dan White. And the film dramatizes Milk's life in a way that makes you feel the tragedy of his death.