Yesterday, we saw Milk, the Harvey Milk biopic. Milk was the San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated along with the city's mayor 30 years ago.
I first heard about Harvey Milk when I was very young, very scared, and just coming out. The idea that an out gay man could have, in the 70s, been elected to major office in a large city was incredible to me. He was the figurehead of the (mostly white, male) national gay rights movement that sprung up around fighting anti-gay ballot initiatives around the country that are very similar to those we are battling now. Milk was an inspiration -- middle-aged men today tell the story of how, as teenagers, they saw Milk in the newspaper and decided not to suicide. The film depicts two stories about that very thing - one in a phone call Milk received from a boy in Minnesota. That was probably my favorite moment of the film because I knew a man in Pueblo who told me an almost identical story.
The film was wonderful. Sean Penn channeled Milk, and the other actors obviously also did their homework. There is a lot of material out there to compare these performances to. If you haven't seen the great documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, I would recommend that first, and this film second. I think that this year's film is impressive especially in comparison to the footage of the real political figure.
10 out of 10 Christmas nipples.
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