Milk – Review

I want to recruit you to see this movie!

Director: Gus Van Sant
Notable Cast: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill and Victor Garber

After his “shot for shot” remake of Psycho and his “Death Trilogy” it was beginning to appear that Gus Van Sant had gone off the deep end, concerned more about making “art” than something people would actually enjoy. Not to say that some of those films weren’t enjoyable, but they were very pretentious. Now Van Sant has returned to form and delivered his best film since Good Will Hunting and quite possibly the best of his career.

Milk is the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever to be elected into a political office. In 1978, after several years of struggle and defeat, Harvey was finally elected as one of San Francisco’s city supervisors. That same year he, along with Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber), was shot and killed. This is historical fact; it’s not going to ruin the end of the movie for you. In fact, just in case you don’t know about this very important man, Van Sant spells this out in the very beginning of the film.

After an opening montage of archival footage and photographs of persecution against homosexuals by police officers we learn about Milk’s assassination then we see him in his kitchen recording onto tape his memoirs to be played, as he states, in case he is killed. We then flashback to 1970 where Harvey meets his long-time partner Scott Smith (James Franco); we follow them as they move from New York to San Francisco and we see the beginnings of Milk’s desire to get political.

Van Sant continues with the archival footage theme throughout the film mixing more of this in and even shooting scenes with the actors that look like they could be archival footage. This proves very effective creating the reality of the film. But it’s not Van Sant’s skill as a director alone that makes this film great. The acting is phenomenal.

I must state that I’ve never been a big fan of Sean Penn, outside of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Sweet and Lowdown I haven’t really liked many of his performances. That said, this is the greatest performance of Penn’s career. This isn’t Penn playing Milk. Penn is Milk. He embodies the man so well that you forget that you’re watching an actor. In fact, the acting across the board in this film is exceptional.

James Franco is wonderful as Scott Smith, it is no wonder that Franco was nominated for a Golden Globe this year. Too bad it wasn’t for this film. Also noteworthy is Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door and Into The Wild) as the young activist and assistant to Harvey, Cleve Jones. His performance is so good that I didn’t even realize it was him until I saw the credits roll at the end. Then of course there is Josh Brolin, who plays fellow City Supervisor, Dan White who was the man who ended Harvey’s life. Brolin plays Dan in an almost sympathetic way. As Harvey tries to befriend him you want to like him. He even has one really funny scene. But as he starts to unravel you pity how pathetic he has become making it hard to hate, but not too hard. It is this that makes the end of the film all the more shocking, even though you know it’s coming.

Harvey Milk was a very important political and historical civil rights activist and spokes person whose career was cut way too short. Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn have created a loving tribute to the men and all he accomplished which will hopefully open a few people’s eyes who see it. This is one of the best films of the year and it’s tragic that the Golden Globes snubbed it so thoughtlessly. Hopefully the Academy will know better.