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Using
documentary footage, split screens and clever narrative
techniques, director Gus Van Sant has crafted an inventive and
powerful film. Milk goes beyond the particulars of
the gay movement - it is a thrilling bio-pic about the life
of a freedom-fighter, and a drama about city politics and a
community's fight for civil rights.
A
passionate belief in a cause and a love for life propelled Harvey
Milk to the forefront of the gay rights movement. After
meeting his partner Scott Smith in a New York subway at the age of
thirty-nine, Milk abandoned his closeted corporate
existence. He moved to San Francisco where he opened a
camera store and lived openly with his partner, a radical move in
the early nineteen-seventies. It is in Haight-Ashbury, the
hardscrabble San Francisco neighborhood, that Milk eventually became the
self-proclaimed 'Mayor of Castro Street.' He became actively
involved in issues affecting the gay community and began
organizing. Eventually elected to the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors in 1977 he became the first openly gay man to hold
public office in the U.S.
As
Harvey Milk, Sean Penn delivers one of the most spectacular
tour-de-force performances of recent times. The bad-boy
actor has matured into a nuanced performer; here he brilliantly
mimics every subtle gesture - angle of head or movement of wrist -
capturing the distinctive characteristics of the real-life Harvey
Milk. He delivers a complex portrait of a wonderfully
vibrant man who through dint of effort and willpower became a
successful activist, politician and leader.
Towards
the end of the movie, Milk attends a performance of Tosca
and watches entranced. The giving in to operatic melodrama
is perhaps a poignant symbol for a man who learned relatively late
in life the importance of finding true passion in life and giving
oneself over to it.
CAST:
Harvey Milk- Sean Penn; Dan White-Josh Brolin; Scott Smith -James
Franco; Cleve Jones-Emile Hirsch; Jack Lira-Diego Luna Anne
Kronenberg-Alison Pill; Mayor Moscone-Victor Garber; John
Briggs-Denis O'Hare; Dick Pabich-Joseph Cross; Rick Stokes-Stephen
Spinella; Dany Nicoletta-Lucas Grabeel CREW: Directed By: Gus Van
Sant; Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black; Director of Photography:
Harris Savides; Editor: Elliot Graham; Costume Designer: Danny
Glicker; Original Score: Danny Elfman
See:
Milk
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