Posted November 14, 200816 yr http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/3021660219_23d8504fdd.jpg Harvey Milk was a Gay Rights activist is San Francisco in the 1970s. One year after being elected to office (the first openly gay politician to be elected to public office in the United States) Harvey ran into some trouble with a rival city councilor named Dan White (Josh Brolin) defending a family values platform. WARNING Five minutes into the flick there's a love scene that's hard for heterosexual men to watch, but after that you forget Penn is playing Harvey Milk and the character really comes alive... You root for him in the political rallies, feel sorry for him, and celebrate his struggle. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the biopic must have been helped along by the success of The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, an Academy Award winning documentary on the same subject. Milk stars Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and Josh Brolin. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/3024683533_c2b7d9c377.jpg Is this something you'll watch in the theatre? or on DVD? or on an airplane if there is nothing else?
November 15, 200816 yr Given what's just happened in the US with Proposition 8 and everything, I think that this is a highly relevant film even though it IS set in the 70s.. But what film-makers like Van Sant are good at is transposing certain anxieties and thoughts which exist now and placing them into films which, on the surface, take place in a different time... It just proves the old adage though "the more things change, the more they stay the same".. Gay Rights activists are STILL having to fight the same fight over 30 years on from Harvey Milk's death... Unlike those who fought during the Civil Rights movment, the Gay Community has actually seen some of their rights taken away by Proposition 8.... I doubt the gay sex scene in this film will really be of any great upset to UK or European audiences... ;)
Create an account or sign in to comment