Milk (2008) w/ The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

We kick off Pride Month 2022 with this Oscar-winning biopic directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) which delves in the life of slain civil rights activist Harvey Milk who took the city of San Francisco AND the country by storm by becoming the first openly gay politician elected to major office in 1978.  His story is both inspiring and touching, with much of the structure of this film and several highlights coming from the 1984 documentary of his life called “The Times of Harvey Milk” which also won the Best Documentary Oscar that year.  

Sean Penn stars in the 2008 film as the eponymous activist/politician from Woodmere, NY – he also won the Best Actor Oscar that year and is supported by an impressive cast including James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Victor Garber, and Allison Pill.  The documentary was directed by Rob Epstein and was narrated by Harvey Fierstein – both films are very informative along with being quite entertaining, let’s delve into both!

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

MILK – 2008

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Starring Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare, Kelvin Yu, and Joseph Cross

Also THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK Directed by Rob Espstein w/narration by Harvey Fierstein

Genre: Political Biopic (Audio clip)

One thing that I think always caught me off guard about this biopic and why it remains one of my favorites is Sean Penn's portrayal of real-life civil rights activist/San Francisco politician Harvey Milk....he's just so damn LIKEABLE in this! :) It's surprising and disarming because as great of an actor he has been going back to the early '80's, it's positively rare that I find him so charming....

And he would have to be with such a tricky, transformative role - the real Harvey Milk wouldn't have achieved what he did at the time without an inherent likeability, he was always very keen on knowing his audience....speaking out at his most bluntest on some serious issues ONLY around some key folks he was working alongside in the LGBT community. He was a masterful politician and it's part of the real genius of director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black's approach to his story that the audience understands how AND why Milk could embrace this duality. Mastering the art of handshakes with unions, kissing babies, leading the charge on cleaning up dog poop in the parks, etc.....that all came hand-in-hand with orchestrating an often stealth coming-out campaign to undercut the likes of the Anita Bryant's and Dan Whites of the world from pushing their vile "Don't Say Gay" bills at the time. (Honestly NOT a slip. 🤔)

Since his uncharacteristically relaxed and likeable turn as Jeff Spicoli in 'Fast Times almost 40 years ago, Penn has often thrived best as an actor when often playing INTO his prickly persona with performances in Carlito's Way, State of Grace, Bad Boys, and 21 Grams. That's just not the case here as he is effectively portraying a TRUE beacon of light. Milk WAS a beacon of light and even while dealing with some very serious matters relating to the civil rights fight for homosexuals, we also see him reveling in his newfound power to help orchestrate THE biggest parties or celebrations around. :) 

You could definitely see this with pretty jaw-dropping footage of what was likely the first lavish, balls-out (literally) Gay Pride Parade down Market Street in the late '70's....as seen in the Oscar-winning 1984 documentary which helped inspire this movie, The Times of Harvey Milk. This was my first time watching the documentary in conjunction with this movie and while there are many, many beats which Van Sant directly lifts from the doc (which to be fair is given prominent appreciation during the closing credits), it all blends in quite seamlessly with everything dramatized. Just consider me a bit surprised that the 2008 movie doesn't show footage from that first Pride Parade....just seeing packed streets with literally hundreds of thousands of folks filling some relatively crowded streets is damn impressive! 

It's kinda funny that the documentary came out more than 24 years before the Gus Van Sant film and yet having not finally seen the doc 14 years AFTER first seeing the narrative feature, it almost feels more fitting that way - the one aspect of this story which Joel Epstein's documentary delves a bit further into was the current state of San Francisco politics....you get to know Mayor Mosconi much more, seeing as he was much more involved in the democratization of the SF city government than portrayed in Van Sant's film. He comes off as a genuine mensch - the right leader at the time - which is just barely hinted with Victor Garber's performance though it's just matter of screentime, he still gives a good performance overall.

Via loads of interview footage, we also get to know Dan White very indepth in the documentary...the doc also delves MUCH more into his trial for the murders of Milk and Mosconi. And that would likely be my biggest criticism of the documentary by far....it's about 90 minutes long and Milk has died with roughly a half hour remaining. :o Being that Dan White was actually ABSURDLY released from prison in 1984 as well, I can somewhat see the reasoning for this since the trial and that crazy "Twinkie defense" was still a pretty fresh story just six years later.....and to be fair, the real entrenched results of Milk's pioneering efforts towards Gay-influenced gentrification wouldn't really start to be seen in most American urban centers until well into the '90's. Bottom line by the time this doc was actually filmed in '83, you just didn't have nearly as much context for the impact that Milk and others around him (like AIDS activist Cleve Jones who's not even mentioned in the doc while being a very prominent figure played by Emile Hirsh in the '08 film) truly had just five years after his death and the whirlwind year leading up to it. 

And that's part of what makes Milk SUCH an essential movie - allowing a few decades to pass gives you time to reflect while carving out more context for the sea changes he helped bring about. For one thing, the film is quite comfortable portraying his love life in depth in a manner that just wouldn't have been possible in '84. And Van Sant assembled a strong cast to pull this off - James Franco brings a lot of warmth and necessary calm to his earlier scenes as Scott Smith, who was with Milk early on while Diego Luna really pulls off the very tricky performance of Jack, Milk's later boyfriend who was clearly very disturbed. Honestly, his scenes with Penn are the toughest to watch but that's clearly by design. Van Sant was clearly making a concerted effort to portray some of the complications of closeted and/or semi-closeted life around this time....and the unhealthy relationships which can result. :/ 

The two actors who almost steal the movie from Penn are likely Josh Brolin as Dan White and the aforementioned Hirsh playing Cleve Jones. Brolin was justifiably nominated for an Oscar as well, playing a very seemingly buttoned-up old school type who's also gradually coming apart at the seams as he's clearly NOT ready for life as a politician - it's actually quite wrenching at times to see how his resentment of Milk (as a fellow city supervisor who's getting all of the press) just festers, knowing where it will lead. :( 

Beyond that, Hirsh is just a FORCE as this self-proclaimed "prick" in his '20's tricking it up around San Fran before he finds his TRUE calling as a key point person for Milk who proves not only adept at assembling crowds but both riling them AND calming them down when necessary. ;) There are a couple of sequences of just watching him rally the troops via pay telephone - loaded up with quarters - that are just a kick to watch, helped by Van Sant's nifty use of shrinking split screens to show all of the talking heads who are being called! 

Of course, that brings me back to Van Sant who (with key help from Oscar-nominated editor Elliott Graham) is clearly using every trick at his disposal to spin this all into something much more entertaining and with more immediacy than your typical biopic - we see SUCH an adept mixture of archival news footage with modern dramatizations that it's truly difficult to tell them apart at times. We FEEL like we're in the Bay Area in the '70's - Haight, The Castro, City Hall, the Tenderloin, etc - and props must also go to DP Harris Savides for pulling this off the '70's vibe of this film so authentically. Is it some kind of weird coincidence that he also worked on David Fincher's Zodiac just the year before? :) I mean, you get the sense that dude just took a time machine back to '70's San Fran and just kinda planted himself there between shoots....

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Danny Elfman’s score for this film is just SO delicate throughout, it achieves this rare blend of sounding melancholy, whimsical, and hopeful…..often between notes or tempo changes, it’s really a key driver for the tonal balance that Van Sant is going for with this story.  The music itself is very much dominated by various strings with the occasional choral voices coming through for some added effect.

With just a few instruments, the score even fools you at times into thinking it’s trotting out the typical emotional beats that you would see in a biopic like this…..with moments that come close to SCREAMING out, “Ok here’s the moment when you need to cry folks!” but it just never quite goes full-on maudlin to pull you out of the movie like that.  This especially comes through at my personal favorite point of the score which actually plays at the very end as we see a postscript montage of real imagery of all of the key players in this story, describing what happened to each of them eventually…..and as the music builds, it’s really QUITE touching as you gradually realize how many amazing people Harvey Milk had in his circle and how they carried his legacy on after his tragic murder.  As cliched as this might sound, it just doesn’t come off that way thanks to the choices of imagery we are shown AND this very touching music we hear over them. (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

Given that I have previously used this category to address Oscar slights before, you would THINK that the fact that Milk received eight nominations and won two awards in the controversial year of 2008 would make it an ideal candidate.  After all, 2008 was the year The Dark Knight was released and was NOT nominated for Best Picture…..an perceived Oscar slight SO monumental that it pretty much resulted in the Academy expanding the Best Picture category the following year.  Milk of course WAS nominated for Best Picture that year.  Along those same lines, 2008 was the year of the celebrated comeback of Mickey Rourke giving an all-time career performance in The Wrestler which did receive a nomination for Best Actor….and ended up being the sentimental favorite to win the award all the way through Oscar night…..before Sean Penn won Best Actor of Milk.  Do I think these were slights….that Milk stole a deserved Best Actor win from Mickey Rourke and that the film stole a deserved Best Picture nod from The Dark Knight??  I’m likely in the extreme minority here but my answers to those two questions would be……not really sure AND hell no!

Granted, Rourke was pretty transcendent in The Wrestler – it’s a heartbreaking, transformative performance and in retrospect, I would have quite dug it if he won that year….for one thing, I actually like him better than Sean Penn.  But therein lies the rub: the fact that Penn was able to convince ME that he was this warm, charismatic, charming public figure who would inspire millions….that was pretty impressive in itself.  At the end of the day, I think the two performances are comparable in quality and you really couldn’t go wrong rewarding either of them. 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie): 

In a film that has its share of louder emotional moments, my personal favorite scene is  a quieter one roughly half-way through that REALLY gives you a genuine feel for how big movements are often the results of just fortuitous timing.  It’s basically just a late-night sit-down conversation between Harvey Milk and Cleve Jones…..when Jones comes by Milk’s Castro headquarters late at night, apparently heartbroken over a relationship that just ended badly.  You get the sense INITIALLY that Harvey might just be looking to be that convenient shoulder to cry on as he had already aggressively flirted with Cleve in an prior scene when they first met….and who knows if this conversation REALLY happened or if that’s how it actually played out if it did? (Audio clip) But regardless, the conversation eventually shifts into talking about “revolution” and you see these two bond in a very different way – Cleve Jones would eventually become a key campaigner for Milk’s run for city council and….eventually many other advocacy efforts including the AID’s quilt.  As quiet as the scene plays out, you get the sense that history was being made here and that’s what’s so damn thrilling about it…. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film): 

Overall, Milk remains one of the best biopics and political dramas of recent years telling a story that is still disturbingly relevant even today. Seriously....just watch old footage of John Briggs warning of gay teachers back in '78, compare it to segments from Tucker Carlson talking about "indoctrination" today, there's NO daylight between them. 😠 Given that, I have little doubt that the impetus for including such segments from 1978 or before within the narrative feature was based upon just how effectively they were used for the 1984 documentary.  And for that reason, I feel like the contributions of BOTH directors were essential towards delivering the fullest spectrum possible for the story of Harvey Milk – the co-MVP’s are Rob Epstein, director of The Times of Harvey Milk and….Gus Van Sant, director of Milk. (Audio Clip)

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

This is one of those rare true story films that I find so rewatchable and consider me quite grateful to have now finally seen the important documentary which it so clearly built upon - both are high recommends!

Streaming on Peacock TV

And that ends another HOPEFUL review