Incredibly busy weekend, but I want to talk about the movie that I saw on Saturday night, Milk.
I would like to preface with the fact that I've never been a big Sean Penn fan, Gus Van Sant hasn't made a good movie since Good Will Hunting, and I've count very few "gay" movies as my all time favorites (not even Brokeback Mountain made it into my DVD collection). So, I went into this movie with a bit of trepidation and a slightest amount of knowledge of who Harvey Milk was, and I have to say, unequivocally, this was a tremendous movie. Sean Penn disappears so much into this part, and even though he didn't really bear that much of a resemblance to the real person, when he is sitting in the dark towards the end, with his face partially illuminated, it really was like the real Harvey Milk was staring out at us. It was very spooky.
This movie really made me regret not knowing more about Harvey. The fact that issues that he dealt with in the late 70's are still very much the same issues we deal with today is just pretty astounding, and the fact that he was able to mobilize the defeat of Prop 6 (a law that would have prevented homosexuals from being teachers), just makes me realize all the more how much the whole "No to Prop 8" movement botched the job. If Harvery had not been assassinated, he would have been right there, fighting the bigots.
It was very interesting for me to see Harvey's point of view. I've always felt that by not being "in your face" about my homosexuality that I was doing more for our acceptance than the antagonizes that just seem to wave the proverbial red flag in front of the far right's face. I honestly can see both sides of the coin on this one, but Harvey was right to fight back the way he did. If he hadn't, if people like me had been in charge of the movement, we would not have come so far, so fast. The fact that gays were routinely rounded up at the bars in the early 70s in San Francisco and the fact that I can go to any number of gay in the heartland of Indianapolis just proves this fact even more.
If nothing else, I gained more respect for the activist wing of the movement. I may not always agree with the tactics, but you certainly cannot argue with the results. Of course, there is no guarantee that a living Harvey Milk in 2008 could have mobilized the masses to defeat Prop 8, but after seeing this movie, I certainly think they could have learned a thing or two. Before seeing the movie, I was a bit frustrated that the powers the be did not decide to rush the post production and get this movie out in October. After seeing the film, I am even more disgruntled. I really do think it would have helped things in California.
Ah well...coulda, woulda, shoulda. Go see the movie. I think Sean Penn will be picking up his second Oscar for this, mainly because he did the impossible...he effectively looked happy most of the time. :)
5 comments:
I liked the movie, too, and I liked that so much of Harvey's dialogue was taken directly from the tape made--even if it made for some kinda cringe-worthy dialogue ("Imagine that, a gay man with power!").
I think van Sant has made at least one very good movie since his heyday (and I don't count Good Will Hunting as a good movie) and that was Elephant.
The camera in Elephant spends so much time looking at the back of the killers, and he recreates that shot in Milk by following Brolin, but the jumpcut to the reverse angle is almost startling. With a referential turn of the camera van Sant says, "We know this killer. We know he is coming," and that is something that pretty much terrifies me about people like Rick Warren and other evangelicals that claim we can call them friends even though they don't agree with our "lifestyle".
Anyway, I liked it, too. Kinda sad that the film won't reach a broader audience and will essentially be a "preaching to the choir" kind of film.
Oh yeah, and there's a great documentary that won an Academy Award called The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. You should check it out, too.
have you seen the docuementary on harvey?
it is good
Jeremy:
Jeremy, I did see quite a few directorial flourishes that I quit liked, and I'm a director dork. I'd see a movie for a director before I'd necessarily see it for an actor :)
Jeremy & Timd:
I haven't seen the documentary, but with both your recommendations, I will definitely look for it. I may need to get on Netflix (yeah, I'm way behind..I watch too much TV), because I don't know if any place around here would have it for rent.
fitness,
if you have tivo, i rented from amazon directly to my tivo
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