BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Milk begins with real-life footage of police officers raiding gay bars in a 1970s San Francisco, and ends with actual video of a candlelight vigil of tens of thousands of mourners marching the city's night streets in honour of the film's late namesake. In between we confidently rely on director Gus Van Sant and star Sean Penn to fill in the rest of the story of Harvey Milk, a New York-born gay rights activist who subsequently became California's first openly gay man elected to public office, serving on the San Francisco Board of Members.
Spider-Man's James Franco played Cleve Jones, Milk's complacent boyfriend who assists and supports him through tireless campaigning and civic bigotry, only to bow out when Milk peeks politically, and becomes the most relevant and powerful gay rights voice in the state. Penn is at peek performance himself, shedding his own identity for an all-encompassing role as Milk, a portrayal that deservingly landed him his second Best Actor statuette from the Academy Awards (Dustin Lance Black's original screenplay also won an Oscar).
Van Sant doesn't just focus on Milk the politician, but also introduces us to the character and values of Milk, loosely based on The Times of Harvey Milk, a 1984 Oscar-winning documentary that itself was loosely based on Randy Shilt's biography The Mayor of Castro Street (referencing the same street that Milk originally resided).
Josh Brolin is, perhaps, at his best here, as Supervisor Dan White, a family man who initially accepts Milk and his ideologies, only to gradually elude his kinship. Milk's influence and White's resistance led the way to White's pre-emptive resignation, before he shot and killed both Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in November 1978. White spent just five years in prison, for manslaughter, but committed suicide two years later. But the film ended at Milk's assasination, one that forced a naive nation to examine its own behaviour towards the gay minority, and shed light on the gay movement, a cause Milk unintentionally became a martyr of.
4/5 stars
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