BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

taylormhertzberg-44735 We need more movies showing the lgbt community in a positive light. Milk was a bit slow at times, but overall a pretty good watch. I wish there would have been an lgbt actor playing Milk. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to know how the lgbt community was treated, what rights they had and what they had to go through for us to get to this point in our history.

kristinamckittrick "Milk", directed by Gus Van Sant, is a biopic of the first openly gay elected official in the United States, Harvey Milk. Set in 1970's San Francisco, this movie is filled with both hopeful messages of the gay rights movement and also emotional trials for Harvey Milk and his community. In a strategic move that sets the scene as Harvey Milk being a martyr for the gay community, the film opens immediately with the fact that Milk and the Mayor of San Francisco have been assassinated. Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, opens the movie with a flashback to a recording of himself discussing the possibility of his assassination for his supporters the people around him as a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. This recording is cut in and out of throughout the entire film, with Harvey discussing many of the things he accomplished and also the many difficult times he faced. Milk, originally a relatively closeted insurance seller in New York City, is shown picking up a younger man in a subway station and ultimately share an intimate sexual scene. This man is Scottie Smith, played by James Franco, who ultimately becomes Milk's partner and eventual campaign manager. This scene is intimate, casual, and almost a lighthearted juxtaposition to the seriousness of the opening scenes about an impeding assassination. The movie continues on with Harvey and Scottie in San Francisco, with Harvey transforming into a bearded, camera store owning, openly out, resident of the Castro district. There are countless scenes of the lives of Harvey and Scottie and the surrounding happenings in the Castro eventually lead to the politicization of Harvey Milk. This change in his character is closely linked to the scenes of bar riots and corrupt police in the city during this time. The movie is focused mostly on the campaign and leadership of Harvey Milk, with many empowering scenes of gay pride, speeches of hope, and intimate moments between Harvey and his lovers and peers. Harvey's relationship with Scottie eventually comes to demise, and his struggles with this can be considered a major part of the plot of this film outside of the obvious political movement that is clearly the focus. The second relationship that is portrayed in this movie is with Jack, another man much younger than Harvey that comes knocking on his door looking for help with his psychological and drinking problems. Ultimately portrayed as unhealthy, this relationship is on Harvey's mind through many major moments in the movie while Scottie seems to have distanced himself. The final acts in the movie are scenes where Dan White, a fellow councilman, assassinates both Harvey and the Mayor. His motives are not made clear, and historically are also inconclusive, but the scenes are very "Hollywood" and include dramatic elements that are more than likely not as historically accurate as other parts of the movie. The assassination act itself is not a focus in this movie, with the scene only really lasting about ten minutes out of the entire two-hour film. Nicely wrapping this film up is the stunning display of the vigil that took place in San Francisco in honor of the victims of the killings. Overall, this movie portrays Harvey Milk and the ear of gay liberation in an extremely positive and tasteful way. Sean Penn's Milk is incredibly powerful and ensues the heroic qualities that Milk in real life surely had in order to lead these sorts of movements and protests. That being said, there is a bit of an issue with how big the role of this one man is made to seem in this movie. There is a lack of understanding of the community that was already in place in San Francisco when Harvey and Scottie arrive there, as it almost seems like Harvey Milk is the only reason that anything political really took form in this community, when really it was the work of so many men and women trying to get rights for themselves and their peers. The portrayal of Harvey and Scottie and Harvey and Jack is also something to be questioned about regarding the historical accuracy of this film. While the portrayal is arguably a positive one of homosexual relationships in comparison to the negative portrayals often seen in Hollywood, it is important to note that this is romanticized for the purpose of the viewer, as there are discrepancies on how these relationships went in Harvey's real life. I would argue that this is not super important to the portrayal of Milk as a man, it should be noted when critically looking at this film."Milk" overall can be taken as an honorable movie about an extremely honorable man. A biopic that is beautifully shot and scripted to be more historically accurate than many other movies take an attempt to reach. This film has "normalized" portrayals of gay relationships and the gay community in general from this time period. The added elements of movie making that went into this sort of Hollywood production should not take away from the overall message of hope and love, that surely Harvey himself would want to be taken away from this story that ended so tragically.

maddieg-02742 Milk, released in 2008, was directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Academy Award Winner Dustin Lance Black. Based on a true story, Harvey Milk, elected in 1977, was the first openly gay man to hold a prominent political position. He was served as a city councilman in San Francisco for 11 months until he was assassinated. The movie follows Harvey moving to Castro to shortly after his death. Milk is dedicated to showcasing the accomplishments and impact Harvey Milk made for his community and also a huge step in normalizing gay relationships and friendships in Hollywood.The movie begins with news clips showing the oppression that the LGBT community was facing during the 1970s. Immediately, we learn that Harvey Milk and the mayor have been assassinated. The movie is guided by a recording that Harvey Milk made of himself in case he was assassinated. Through this recording his timeline begins with his 40th birthday, where he meets Scott, a man much younger than him. Scott and Harvey decide to move to Castro, CA together, where they open up a camera shop. Castro has a large gay population that Scott and Harvey assimilate smoothly into. As a community, they are able to make impactful strides of acceptance and equality which fuels Harvey to run for a city council position. With lots of support from his friends and Scott, Harvey runs multiple times and is elected as a supervisor for city council. Before Harvey's election victory, Harvey and Scott split up, but Harvey pursues a relationship with an unstable alcoholic, Jack. Even though Milk only served 11 months, he was apply to pass the "Pooper-Scooper" legislature as well as play a big role in the "Briggs Initiative," that opposed Proposition 6. Harvey also makes many speeches encouraging people to fight for the rights of the gay community and also for everyone to "Come out!" As the movie continues, Dan White, another city council supervisor, becomes a more prominent figure. Dan, never seeming too happy or excited about anything, has reservations about the work that Harvey is doing and seems to envy the accomplishments he is making.Dan was struggling with the decisions the board was making and resigned in hopes of getting a different job. Dan's job opportunity falls through, and his job on the board is no longer available for him. Shortly after he resigns, he comes into work one day with a gun and kills both Mayor Moscone and Harvey. As devastating as the ending of this film is, it ends with the inspiring words of Harvey's recording surrounded by the 50,000 people that marched the streets of Castro during his vigil.Until the time the movie was made, Hollywood had not seen a lot of movies with physical homosexual relationships. I enjoyed the closeness of Harvey and Scott's relationship. From the very beginning, their relationship normalized the idea of a homosexual relationship on screen. They hugged and kissed in both private and public. Their relationship was very emotional and based off of love, which was juxtaposed by the very sexual relationship of Harvey and Jack. As much as Harvey cared for Jack, their relationship was characterized by sexual desire and need. Another criticism of sexuality comes from the idea of a monogamous Harvey Milk. He had more of a sex life than the two relationships portrayed in the film.The fight against Proposition 6 was a huge focus during the late 1970s. The movie focuses heavily on the religious end echoed by Senator Briggs and Anita Bryant. As much as the population was swayed by the religious argument, religion was portrayed as the major influence of Proposition 6. The influence of political figures and their opinions were mentioned, but the movie focused more on how Harvey was a major politician against Proposition 6. He played a huge role, yet President Carter, Governor Reagan, and other political figures were also very openly against Proposition 6.As seen with Proposition 6, Milk gets a lot of political attention and recognition for different accomplishments throughout the movie. He played a huge role in these achievements, but the movie glorifies his personal influence and heightens credit the credit he should receive. He was very much a prominent activist, but played more of a team role in life, rather than an individual champion. That being said, he still remained the role of a relatable man. This was increasingly important when displaying a homosexual man. We see his sexuality throughout the movie, but also see him as an accomplished, focused politician. Sean Penn as Harvey Milk retains a humble, down to earth personality from moving to Castro until his death, leading to an Academy Award winning performance as Best Actor.As there are some drawbacks, this movie was taken positively by both the LGBT community and general population. As some may complain about specific aspects of relationships, like myself, overall the LGBT characters and relationships were portrayed in a groundbreaking way that captivated both homosexual and heterosexual audiences. This kind of representation further pushes our society in understanding and acceptance of the LGBT community through empathy of specific stories like Harvey Milk.

manosnb Milk was a quite interesting and thought provoking movie overall. In my opinion, its best parts was the lack of cheap discrimination clichés and the solid performance of Sean Pean as Harvey Milk. I have to admit that I liked the persona of Harvey Milk and he would have definitely won my vote back in the 70's San Francisco. Nevertheless, this movie had a major flaw for me; the lack of a heart-touching soundtrack. Beautiful soundtracks can truly elevate a movie, and especially a drama. Unfortunately, this movie left me with no single memory of a melody. Another small that I would change would be a little more character development on secondary roles. But I am not the director anyways.. So all in all, nice topic, solid performances, nice touch avoiding cheap clichés but it did fail to inspire strong emotions. When I choose to watch a drama my ultimate and hidden hope is that I will need one roll of toilet paper to whip my tears off. Happened with Beautiful Mind, with American History X but not with Milk!