The 2008 film Milk explores the last ten years of Harvey Milk's life, the first openly gay man to win an election in a major political office in the United States. Walking into this movie, I was excited to review it as a typical Hollywood film where anything about being gay automatically gets Oscar nods and is critically acclaimed as a classic film pushing and transcending boundaries. As it turns out, after seeing the film I didn't find this at all, though it may push boundaries for some, it is a true story and one that brings exposure to important issues. The movie is filled with inspiring quotes that can be applied to many mediums, not just the fight for gay civil rights. The movie shows the opposition to the fight for gay rights from the political, religious and most bigoted perspectives. Though it spoke with a clear agenda aiming towards glorifying Harvey Milk, its obvious placement in theateres after proposition 8 and not considering the other sides credibility in perspective, I found it to be a wonderful film in regards to an average person creating exceptional circumstances.
Harvey Milk: All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words.
The film's roles gave opportunities for high caliber actors to shine their true potential as Emile Hirsch, James Franco and Sean Penn made noise with their roles as homosexuals, Josh Brolin played an amazing jealous politician who was trying to do what he thought was right, until it drove him so mad that he shot the mayor and Milk.
Milk's presence in political office came with charisma and presence as he used his influence to not only be a voice for gays but senior citizens and the poor. In the movie, the portrayal of the religious right is perhaps a bit extreme and makes each person in opposition to Milk in even the slightest seems extreme, however the film will turn (even they can stomach to watch a couple dude on dude make out scenes) the most extreme bigot into a more tolerant person I would hope as it illustrates the inhumane circumstances a homophobic America has put the gay population through over decades of abuse. Before his death, Milk was quoted as saying, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let the bullet destroy every closet door." His fight for proposition 6 in California succeeded that no openly gay teacher could be fired for their sexuality.
Harvey Milk: If it were true that children emulate their teachers, we'd have a lot more nuns running around.
After his assasination Dan White (Josh Brolin) went on trial and was given a minimal sentance even for shooting two politicians at work including the mayor. The jury was biased towards White and it is no wonder he got off so easy for having too much sugar in his diet. Wikipeda states "Milk's and Moscone's murders and White's trial changed city politics and the California legal system. In 1980 San Francisco ended district supervisor elections, fearing that a Board of Supervisors so divisive would be harmful to the city, and that they had been a factor in the assassinations. A grassroots neighborhood effort to restore district elections in the mid-1990s proved successful, and the city returned to neighborhood representatives in 2000. As a result of Dan White's trial, California voters changed the law to reduce the likelihood of acquittals of accused who knew what they were doing but claimed their capacity was impaired. Diminished capacity was abolished as a defense to a charge, but courts allowed evidence of it when deciding whether to incarcerate, commit, or otherwise punish a convicted defendant. The "Twinkie defense" has entered American mythology, popularly described as a case where a murderer escapes justice because he binged on junk food, simplifying White's lack of political savvy, his relationships with George Moscone and Harvey Milk, and what San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen described as pandemic police "dislike of homosexuals". Dan White served a little more than five years for the double murder of Moscone and Milk. On October 22, 1985, a year and a half after his release from prison, White was found dead in a running car in his ex-wife's garage. He was 39 years old. His defense attorney told reporters that he had been despondent over the loss of his family, and the situation he had caused, adding "This was a sick man."
After hearing of the easy sentance the gay community was furious and a surge of people from the Castro District walked again to City Hall, chanting "Avenge Harvey Milk" and "He got away with murder".Pandemonium rapidly escalated as rocks were hurled at the front doors of the building. Milk's friends and aides tried to stop the destruction, but the mob of more than 3,000 ignored them and lit police cars on fire. They shoved a burning newspaper dispenser through the broken doors of City Hall, then cheered as the flames grew. One of the rioters responded to a reporter's question about why they were destroying parts of the city: "Just tell people that we ate too many Twinkies. That's why this is happening." The chief of police ordered the police not to retaliate, but to hold their ground. The White Night riots, as they became known, lasted several hours.
Milk was included in the "Time 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century" as "a symbol of what gays can accomplish and the dangers they face in doing so". Despite his antics and publicity stunts, "none understood how his public role could affect private lives better than Milk ... [he] knew that the root cause of the gay predicament was invisibility"
Sean Penn is a revelation as Milk. He not only has a remarkable resemblance to the real man but his energy drives the story. Something I really enjoyed about the film's acting is it revealed the many sides to homosexuality. The gays in the film were not stereotypical and some were true to life just like every day people. James Franco for example is very much like he speaks in real life, wheras Penn and Hirsch resemble different manifestations in themselves. Overall the film is worth seeing, Van Sant (director) has a powerful story to tell, and he tells it with craft, as it was written.
CONSENSUS:
Rotten Tomatoes give this move a 93% rating
Zoom In Analysis will AGREE with this rating
In conclusion, I'd like to switch it up a bit and write a personal piece in response to a movie that begs such controversial questions and in emulation of Harvey Milk, I'd like to be a voice within my own community.
Why someone can still be religious and support gay civil rights:
The mormon document "The family: A proclamation to the World" states blatantly that each child is entitled to a mother and a father. Personally I beleive that I would rather have a child be adopted into any family with a loving parent than be an orphan, whether the "mother" and "father" roles are male and female, as long as they love eachother and show love to their child I feel that that is a power that is special either way. Seeing The plan of god is freedom to choose/free agency, the whole reason (the church believes) that we are here is to have a freedom of choice. I don't think personally in all honesty that being homosexual is the right thing, but I do believe that if you do think it is right then you should have the free agency to choose and the rights that go along with it. It’s obviously a human rights issue; we are beyond the times when we can ignore it as immoral. It’s not about political ideology or proving you are accepting and liberal, it is about believing that people should have the right to act as people. There is a theory that if we allow homosexuals their right, who is to say a man can’t marry a horse or pedophilia shouldn’t have its demands heard? First of all, to compare the two in the same breath is arrogant and secondly the percentage of the population that actually believes that this is okay is a dot on a very large map. The day when pedophiles and advocates of bestiality want their voice heard and it is actually getting recognized is when I will admit we have definitely stepped in the wrong direction.
The church is under a lot of heat because of proposition 8 in California. It funded a third of the campaign to get it passed. There are protesters outside of temples and even persecuting people when they go into church on Sunday. I have a lot to say about this. There are so many elements of irony and paradox in the way the gay community is handling the situation. first of all I should mention that not all Mormons were along side with the church, many put signs up to the contradictory view on their lawn because they believe the same as me...does this mean we are unfaithful or bad Mormons or even thinking of leaving the church?...I don’t think so, the ultimate doctrine of the church is that god will look into your heart. And in my heart I feel I’m right.
Secondly, the protesters decide to pick on our church, which makes sense, but the other 2/3rds of the funding came from African American churches, Baptists and Catholics. When interviewed, an African American said that he denies the gay community the right to compare their struggle with that of the blacks in the civil war because it’s totally different and what he called immoral. He also criticized them for being contradictory because they all solicit a vote for Obama and because they are gay push attitudes of acceptance for the blacks as well, however not one protester has come to a black Baptist church or any black church because he said they are scared to be seen as racist. I just thought it was kind of funny that hundreds of protesters have been outside Mormon buildings but fail to recognize all the other sects.
Finally I have my main point as to why if I was in California I may have not voted for prop 8 despite my beliefs: It was the plan of democrats and the gay community that soon, since gay marriage was legal bylaw any church that did not allow gay marriage would therefore not be allowed to practice marriage at all. This is outrageous, if the whole principle for gay marriage is based on rights, then why deny a hetero couple the right to marry the way they want or a church to act in the way they wish. It’s almost a revenge wish and quite frankly the criticism of if there were only gay people the human race would cease to exist: doing something like this actually gives credit to that notion. To me, this is completely ironic and hypocritical. If the world ever becomes this liberal I think it’s gone downhill. Religion isn’t a bad thing, the world definitely has blinders on the great things religion has created within people despite the views of Islamic fundamentalism and political theocracies (bush).
The solution: give both sides complete civil rights and take nothing away. Give the homosexual community all the civil rights of a marriage. A loved one or a partner should be able to visit someone in the hospital when they are ill, without this civil right they aren’t considered family and therefore are denied aspects that a married couple would. Simply give them all the civil rights that a married couple would and then don’t deny rights to the other side. When blacks or women got civil liberties, nothing was taken away from other races
of gender.
The bottom line is: I find that there are many like me. Liberal views and the church can still mix, my faith is secure with my liberal ideology: I feel non-discriminate even though I do believe that being homosexual is not the right thing to do, or rather the natural order of things meant to happen (which does not contradict with what the church believes), outside of the church I can still practice my civil rights (which are separate) to be accepting of how people want to practice their free agency. When issues like this come up in church, I defend my view and it is not discriminated or mocked, it’s accepted. There are people in the church who are bigoted, and even racist. But there are people like this everywhere. The point is there are people in the church that are very liberal minded as well and we keep practicing our faith because it brings me closer to that pure heart spirit that I believe ultimately matters. I think almost all churches can help someone achieve this, but for me personally this is the best church to help me do just that. To be frank, I will go as far as to equivocate the view of many people on homosexuality and homophobia to the extremist racist views of just a few decades ago, our children or grandchildren will be ashamed of the way society has treated gays just as I am ashamed of how society has treated blacks and aboriginals.
