Sean Penn Shines as Harvey Milk in New Movie
I remember when I first learned about the story of Harvey Milk. It was in a documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk in 1984. At the time I was painting a large canvas with my girlfriend in the basement of her home. We worked on it every evening for a week, only pausing for a quick supper. As we ate one night, this documentary was presented on PBS. I remember how much it affected us both, how Milk’s story stirred our compassion, and our beliefs in equality.
What seems a short time in memory translates into over twenty years. However, even after all this time, the story I remember from that documentary is still clear in my head. So I come to viewing the new Gus Van Sant release with curiosity and interest. I also arrive with a sense of having been moved by the truth of this story, and therefore anticipating how Van Sant’s treatment might augment of annul my conviction to Harvey Milk’s message.
Milk begins with the announcement of the tragedy of Harvey Milk’s assassination by fellow San Francisco Supervisor, Dan White, and works back from there to Milk’s arrival on the coast in the early 70′s from New York. As was this character, Van Sant’s approach weaves Harvey into the tapestry of the moment, where homosexuals endure open bigotry and violence, and that hatred is propelled onto the national stage by right wing activists like Antia Bryant. Harvey is the man of the moment who having sloughed off the closet with his departure from the insurance business “recruits” an army of misfits and deviants, bringing them together for his successful political fight.
Sean Penn shines as Harvey Milk, bringing the character to life with both the delightful as well as dark aspects of his life. The bigotry, secrecy, the relationships that end with suicide, and the struggle to make a difference. Penn is again transformed both emotionally and physically, playing with a range of animated gestures gleaned from the archival video of the real Harvey Milk.
The story has only one place to go, but the ride is a visual treat with period footage interspersed. The acting is wonderful, not only Penn’s portrayal, but also Josh Brolin’s Dan White, James Franco as Milk’s longtime lover, Emile Hirsch as Cleave Jones, and the many colorful characters who round out the ensemble.
Harvey Milk represented hope and his sacrifice to the cause of Gay rights is even more dramatic decades after his murder.
