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Milk: Deeply Moving, Difficult, and Worthwhile

BuzzSugar — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:30:58 -0800

"I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living." - Harvey Milk

The story of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk had a huge impact on me a few years ago when I first watched the Oscar-winning documentary about him, The Times of Harvey Milk. His is truly a stranger-than-fiction tale and is so full of inspiration, absurdity, and absolute heartache that it's somewhat surprising it has taken this long to create a feature-length dramatization of his life and death. I respect director Gus Van Sant's decision to memorialize and honor Harvey Milk with his movie Milk, and to my great relief, Van Sant and his exceptional ensemble cast have done Milk's story justice.

Milk picks up Harvey Milk's life when Milk (Sean Penn) meets one of the great loves of his life, Scott Smith (portrayed by James Franco) and decides to move from New York City to San Francisco. There, the two open a camera store in the heart of the Castro, a neighborhood with a rapidly growing gay population, and there Milk begins his life as a leader of the gay rights movement in the 1970s. After trying and failing twice, he is finally elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, largely due to the support of the gay community. For the first time, it becomes apparent that the gay community could be a powerful one, and Milk often emphasizes this during his time in city hall. As the country's first openly gay man to be elected to public office, Milk brings the gay rights movement to the city's attention as much as possible, earning him admiration and support along with many enemies - including his ultimate enemy, fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). For more about this and my thoughts on it all, read more.

Dan White is a good ol' Christian boy who feels threatened by and resentful of Harvey Milk's success. Josh Brolin, who is fast becoming one of the most fascinating actors in Hollywood, simply morphs into this insecure and fearful man who gradually becomes unhinged. His fate and that of Harvey Milk are tragically linked in history forever, and frankly, it's disturbing to see Dan White brought to life on screen, especially after seeing all the actual footage of him in the documentary.

The rest of the cast is equally remarkable: Franco makes for a loving, sympathetic Smith, and Emile Hirsch is captivating as Milk's young activist protégé Cleve Jones. Allison Pill is always an undeniably strong presence on screen and her depiction of Milk's sole female team member, Anne Kronenberg, is no different. Diego Luna plays one of Milk's lovers, Jack Lira, with equal parts bright beauty and troubling instability. Most of all, Penn's portrayal of this charismatic, resilient, and good-humored pioneer will surely earn him some well-deserved accolades and awards.

This project is remarkably ambitious. There are so many intersecting aspects of Milk's career, activism, and personal life, it's enough to make one's head spin. Add to this Van Sant's decision to incorporate actual footage from the '70s into his dramatized story, and you've got yourself a crazy, giant puzzle to put together. But the actual footage is crucial in this case, consistently reminding us that though this seems like fiction at times - especially now, to modern audiences - this is a true story.

Interestingly, one "character" (so to speak), the outspoken fundamentalist Christian singer Anita Bryant, is not played by any actress (though at first glance I thought for sure it was Marcia Gay Harden). Instead, her entire part in Milk's story is shown through real footage - which only makes her behavior that much more staggering. This directorial choice seamlessly blends the reality of Harvey Milk's actual life with the staging of his life by the director and cast. Overall, I can’t express enough how much I applaud and admire Van Sant’s accomplishment here. It's a complicated and deeply emotional story, and the entire production - Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the whole cast - carried a tremendous responsibility to get this thing right and the result is a dignified homage.

I highly recommend watching the documentary first, as there was an effervescence and a beautiful light to the real Harvey Milk that no actor, not even the great Sean Penn, can capture. Both the documentary and this new film may leave you speechless and/or weepy. But his is a worthwhile story to tell and if this grand-scale production with heavy-hitting actors and a talented director gets his story out there, all the better.

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Buzz News Roundup, 12/5

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:33:06 -0800

The Hollywood Reporter has news that Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco have joined Sean Penn for the Harvey Milk biopic, Milk.
The stage musical version of Mary Poppins will begin its U.S. tour in Chicago during the spring of 2009, writes Variety.
Michael Urie of Ugly Betty will host a Miss America special on TLC starting in January; details are at The Futon Critic.
E! Online has news about the tour John C. Reilly will do to promote his mock musical biopic Walk Hard.
Randy Jackson is auditioning hip-hop crews for an upcoming MTV show, TV Guide reports.
According to Variety, Edward Norton will star in the comedic thriller Leaves of Grass.
Dancing With the Stars professional champion Julianne Hough is launching a singing career, Billboard reports.
Old episodes of Pop-Up Video will start airing online via VH1 Classic, Broadcasting & Cable reports.

Source

Matt Damon, Sean Penn Attached to Harvey Milk Biopic

BuzzSugar — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:22:01 -0700

Ever since I watched the mesmerizing and heartbreaking documentary The Mayor of Castro Street - which won the Best Documentary Oscar in 1985 - I've kept an eye out for news about the film version of this story. Today, Hollywood Reporter announced that Matt Damon and Sean Penn are attached to star in the biopic about Harvey Milk, the first gay councilman in the U.S. who was viciously killed by his fellow councilman Dan White in 1978. Here's more:

Penn is attached to play [Harvey] Milk and Damon is attached to play Milk's killer, Dan White, in [Gus Van Sant]'s long-gestating Milk biopic. The filmmakers are now in talks with a leading specialty division to launch the project. Once a deal is finalized, the team behind the as-yet-untitled feature hopes to begin production in San Francisco as early as December.

It's the latest chapter in a long-running race to film the biopic of the first openly gay prominent elected official, which has pitted Van Sant's project against another from fellow openly gay director Bryan Singer.

Last I'd heard, Bryan Singer was directing this project, though apparently Van Sant has had a long-standing connection with this story, and even wrote a screenplay for it once. I think both of these directors would have an interesting take on Milk's story, so all I care about is that whoever directs does it justice.

Penn and Damon photos source

What to Netflix: The Times of Harvey Milk

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:24:46 -0700

Okay, all you documentary fans, have I got a recommendation for you. The Times of Harvey Milk, winner of the 1985 Academy Award for Best Documentary, left me speechless and filled with mixed emotions. In the 1970s in San Francisco, good-natured camera store owner Harvey Milk was elected onto the board of city supervisors, becoming the first gay city official in the U.S.

At a time when civil rights were still at the forefront of peoples' minds, Milk, along with his colleagues and friends, worked hard for tolerance. Among other things, Milk fought to make it illegal to fire teachers based on their sexual orientation. This was a huge win for Milk and his supporters, and his career at city hall was picking up speed.

At the apex of this success, however, Milk was shockingly assassinated, along with the mayor at the time, the highly respected George Moscone. The murderer was a fellow board member whose defense claimed, among other preposterous things, that he was rendered insane from eating too much junk food. That's not nearly the end, however, so read more

This story is so intriguing and sad that it made me wonder how I'd never heard about it, and here's why: Milk's murder occurred almost immediately after the story broke about the Jonestown massacre, another San Francisco-related tragedy in which approximately 900 people died (which became fodder for another jarring documentary). Thus, Milk's story garnered very little press.

The whole thing seems too crazy to be true, and sure enough, there is a Hollywood movie in the works, The Mayor of Castro Street, helmed by Superman Returns director Bryan Singer and scheduled to come out in 2009. Before then, though, check out The Times of Harvey Milk.