Movie-Milk

Milk was nominated for several major Oscars, including best picture, best actor (Sean Penn), best supporting actor (Josh Brolin) and best director. Sean Penn won the best actor award.

Milk is a biopic about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold political office in the U.S. He was on the San Fransisco board of supervisors. Milk was assassinated, along with Mayor Moscone, by Dan White, another man who had served on the board, but was mentally unstable, repressed and more than a little upset the Milk was a better politician.

The story is moving, and some may accuse it of being pro-gay, and advocating that life. I think it is pro-freedom. It addresses the need to allow everyone to lead the life they wish, without persecution or harassment. Harvey Milk happened to be gay, but the story is about black and Latino and women and Jews and anyone who is not white, anglo-saxon, Christian and accepted.

Sean Penn is excellent, as he so often is, as Harvey. At 40 years old, he is closeted, and working as an anonymous worker bee in a big corporation in New York. And he decides that that isn't the way he wants the rest of his life to go. So he and his partner move to the Castro, open a business and become part of a community that is constantly picked on by the city police. Harvey got into politics because of the persecution he saw.

He was killed when he was 48. In 8 years the changes he made were transformational in the rights of gay people everywhere. He fought back Anita Bryant and her anti-gay crusaders and he won.

Josh Brolin is also excellent as Dan White, Milk's co-supervisor and assassin. He plays White as conflicted and earnest, trying to understand himself and the confusing changes in the world around him.

Milk is an excellent movie, with a great cast. It uses some archival footage, and really gets the feel of the 70's down pat. It also has a message of hope-- that some time, no one will be denied the same rights as the aforementioned "accepted" people. It should not matter, and one day it won't, your sexuality and who you love, it won't matter the color of your skin or your religion...all that will matter is the quality of the person. That is what will count.