‘Milk’ Does A Body (And Soul) Good
Last night I met up with Steph and Alek for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory before we made our way to a special screening of Milk at the ArcLight Theater in Sherman Oaks, CA. Even tho I had/have a million things to take care of before I fly out for Connecticut today, I had to make time to see this movie. I’ve only read and heard about the amazing things that Harvey Milk accomplished when he was alive and I have been very anxious to see his life story translated to film by director Gus Van Sant and actor Sean Penn:
I mean, what can I say … this movie is just stunning. The powerhouse performances by ALL of the actor’s were very impressive. Sean Penn delivers another Oscar-worthy performance but his supporting cast is just as skilled at bringing their characters to life. The movie is set in the 1970s (think porn’stachapalooza) and Van Sant does everything he can to make the film look as authentically 70’s as possible. The film has a grainy look to it that makes it feel like archival footage. I normally don’t like conventions like these, but in this instance it works very well. The thing that struck me most about the film was the historical political parallel of the late 70’s (in regards to gay rights) to what is happening in our country today. There are many scenes that depict the fight for gay rights, highlighting protests that took to the streets of San Francisco in opposition to California Proposition 6 (which would’ve made it legal for gay teachers to lose their jobs for being gay). There are many scenes in the film that mirror the sorts of things that happened in the aftermath of the passage of Proposition 8 (banning same-sex marriage) just this month. In the 70’s, Milk and his campaign were successful whereas we were not today. If any lesson can be gleaned from the amazing life story of Harvey Milk it is that — win or lose — the struggle continues … even to this day, the struggle continues.
The movie is a tour de force for both Van Sant and Sean Penn … expect Academy Award noms to come. Milk is a powerfully important film, I cannot endorse it more fully. See this movie!
In a couple of hours, I jet off to the East Coast for the Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll be comin’ atcha for the next few days from the East Side, y’all. Remember, tonight is the bizziest drinking night of the year … be safe and have fun!!
Tags: 'Milk'
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November 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I’m about to buy my ticket as I type for next week!! I can’t wait…
November 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I am so unbelievably excited for this movie. Emile Hirsch is the love of my life!
November 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I saw this movie at a free screening in Philadelphia. I was blown away by the supporting characters especially (Sean Penn of course was awesome–but James Franco? Emile? Amazing). Kind of sad though…one of the guys I was with said that Milk should have come out before the election and maybe the outcome of the Prop 8 vote would have turned out differently. There’s so much to this story that we aren’t taught in school.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I was there last night too! It was incredibly well done. I agree with everything you said about the grainy look/feel of the film. It work very well and the authenticity was really brought to life. I also love Emile Hirsch’s performance, he is simply phenomenal.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Happy Thanksgiving Trent.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Trent – I really think it is good that you endorse this film. And you’re right, the struggle definitely continues. I would like to ask you if I could share with you and your readers that the struggle also continues in Canada.
I’m in Vancouver and this Friday (Nov 28), the evil Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church plans to visit my city with a group of his fellow haters to protest the staging of the play The Laramie Project (that’s the one about Matthew Shepherd).
Phelps has NO BUSINESS here and efforts are underway to prevent him from crossing the border into Canada because it is illegal in Canada to incite hatred against gays or lesbians or any other identifiable group.
Last August, Phelps and his group made headlines for wanting to come to Canada to protest at the funeral of Tim McLean who was beheaded on a Greyhound bus. His death was a devastating national tragedy. And the Phelps group publicly stated that his death was God’s revenge against Canada for allowing gay marriage. Luckily most of his group was stopped at the border and their planned protest never happened.
Many Vancouverites and Canadians hope he will again be stopped at the border before his planned protest here on Friday.
I sincerely hope that you are okay with me posting a comment on your blog about this. It’s not my intention to politicize this space or create a message without your support, but this issue is just so unbelievably important that I really feel it must be exposed so that it can be corrected and stopped. I hope that you might agree and can support the communication of this message. Thank you for your consideration :)
November 26th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
yes!! i want to see this movie SOO much!! WHEN will it come to all theatres?!? i was supposed to write the review for my high school’s newspaper (i thought it would do it some good to put some controversal stuff in there), but was saddened to find out it’s only in limited release =( so … i’m stuck with Twilight.
i’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO jealous that you got to see this amazing movie!!
November 26th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Kent – Thank you for bringing that whole thing about Phelps and Tim McLean. And that is not to sound sarcastic at all. I live in Edmonton – the city where that man lived and worked and took that greyhound my sister has taken many times and I was born in Winnipeg the city the bus never made it to, and where Tim was from, made the story was extremely more disturbing and the fact that it all happened in Canada made me feel almost disconnected from my country, that something like that really happened. I really wish Trent could have maybe posted something about that rally you were speaking of and I could not imagine how Tim’s family must of felt that those people where blaming their innocent son’s death on Gay Marriage and they also blamed it on Canada’s right for abortions. Trent -I know you are very proud of were you are from but maybe you should acknowledge more that your readers come from every part of the world, not just the United States.
December 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I saw Milk this weekend and had to check out what you wrote about it. I think this movie is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I am a big fan of Gus Van Sant, and I feel like all of the movies he has made in the past, from the very experimental to the very mainstream, were leading up to this achievement. An incredible movie. And all of the performances were superb. Just perfect.