Director: Gus Van Sant
Entertainment grade: A–
History grade: A–
Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1978, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. He was shot and killed by fellow supervisor Dan White, 11 months into his term.
- Milk
- Production year: 2008
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 15
- Runtime: 128 mins
- Directors: Gus Van Sant
- Cast: Alison Pill, Denis O'Hare, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Lucas Grabeel, Sean Penn
Dialogue
Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) is recording a tape for posterity: "This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination," he says. As an introduction for a voiceover, that seems too good to be true – but it is true. The real Harvey Milk made the tape a year before his death. The real tape can be heard in the 1984 Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. Famously, director Gus van Sant remade Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho shot by shot. Fortunately, he doesn't repeat that trick here. Though it lifts a few lines, the dramatised Milk is a substantially different film from the documentary – with a greater focus on Harvey Milk's personal life, and less on San Francisco politics.
Politics
After a long struggle to get himself elected, Harvey finally makes it to office in 1978 – though one of the issues he makes his own is not usually regarded as a fundamental of liberation struggles. "Clean up the dogshit in this town, you're the next mayor," suggests one of his aides. Harvey champions the Pooper Scooper Ordinance, and invites the press to photograph him in a city park, scooping. While doing so, he accidentally treads in some of it – and, with raised eyebrows, lifts his foot to show the cameras. What the movie doesn't mention, but the documentary does, is that Harvey went down to the park beforehand and hid a pile of canine excreta in a specific spot, so that he could be sure of treading in it in front of the media. Still, if that's as dirty as your hands get in the course of a political career, you're doing a pretty good job.
Crime
The film implies that Dan White may have been a closet homosexual. "I know what it's like to live that life, that lie," muses Harvey. In real life, there is no suggestion that this might have been true. Other than that, the film's depiction of White's rampage in City Hall fits the facts. Though White was carrying a loaded gun and 10 extra rounds of ammunition, and he climbed in through an open window to avoid the metal detectors on the front door, White's defence argued that the killings of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were not premeditated. The jury – selected to be white, straight and conservative – agreed, and White was convicted of double manslaughter rather than murder.
Scandal
The film avoids mentioning the Jonestown massacre, which happened days before White's rampage. California representative Leo Ryan was among five people murdered in Guyana after visiting the Peoples Temple, formerly based in San Francisco. Afterwards, 909 members of the Temple died. From the point of view of Harvey Milk's story, excluding Jonestown is understandable. But the atmosphere in San Francisco after the massacre may help explain why the city responded so strongly to the deaths of Milk and Moscone.
Popularity
Much of that response, of course, is explained by Harvey Milk's widespread popularity. This is where the film underplays its own significance. Most of the speaking parts among Harvey's supporters and activists are reserved for young, gay, white men. Minor roles are given to a token lesbian, and a token Chinese American. In real life, much of Harvey's support came from senior citizens, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and women. He fought with great passion for their concerns, as well as for those of gay men. As one commenter puts it in The Times of Harvey Milk, "Harvey stood for something more than just him."
Verdict
A thoughtful and moving film, though if you can spare another 84 minutes afterwards it's well worth watching The Times of Harvey Milk to put it in historical context.