Blog Review: Milk

Director: Gus Van Sant
Produced by: Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen, Michael London
Written by: Dustin Lance Black
Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco

Milk

Milk is based on Harvey Milk, America’s first openly gay man voted into office. Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, is almost forty and working a job he despises saying “Forty years old and I haven't done a thing that I'm proud of.” Being a gay man living in New York working at a high end job, Harvey is dissatisfied with his life and moves to San Francisco with his partner, Scott Smith (James Franco) to live somewhere a little more “gay friendly.” Despite he feels safer in San Francisco, he realizes that there is still a lot of unfair treatment for homosexuals. He then decides with his business background, to run for city supervisor and get equal rights for everyone.
Harvey works hard to recruit people and starts to campaign strong. He tries to get his ideas on ballot as get gays, minorities, and the disabled to vote for him. This way, he feels that he will be able to win the election. All of his hard work starts to pay off but is never enough. After losing city supervisor twice, his partner and campaign manager Scott leaves him. He feels that Milk isn’t spending enough time focusing on their relationship and is more concerned with his activism.
Milk feeling lost and sad starts to have another realization that he can win the race. He tries once more with the help of his friends and wins city supervisor. Now that he is in office, he can fight even more effectively for the people he represents. One main proposition he wants to fight against is proposition 6 which bans both gays and lesbians from teaching. Whilst fighting against proposition 6, he is finding himself building tensions with fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin) and feeling uneasy about Dan’s intentions. Dealing with personal problems and political problems, Harvey Milk continues to fight to get the right so of his people and have gay rights more accepted and allow them to have the same rights as everyone else in America.
Milk was a fantastic film which followed Harvey Milk’s passion for activism and equal rights for all. Despite his personal problems, he was able to effectively fight for his people and start to create change by influencing rally’s and political activism. Sean Penn’s portrayal of Milk is heart-warming and the audience gets a feel of Milk’s willingness to create change and acceptance for all. The whole cast added a lot to the film, making it enjoyable and powerful. Despite their views, the audience feels for Harvey’s hard work to speak for the people he represents. The movie is incredible and makes anyone want to go out and make a difference.