Movie Review: Milk

Milk has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture this year, and I just watched it at the AMC Best Picture Showcase this morning. Sean Penn gave an absolutely amazing performance as gay activist Harvey Milk, but he was surrounded by a number of other fantastic personalities as well and ultimately the combination was definitely worth the Best Picture nomination.

Now here’s the scoop. If you are a fundamentalist who is so opposed to any lifestyle other than your basic religion, don’t even bother trying to see this movie. You are going to see men kissing within the first 5 minutes and then you’ll have to get up and walk out. It’s just not even worth wasting your time.

However, if you consider yourself even partially open minded (you’re not gay, you don’t like it, but you’ll at least tolerate people) then this film is absolutely worth seeing.

I thought that the film’s creators did a fantastic job of emphasizing both the humanity, and the persecution, involved with the characters. The overriding theme of the movie, as far as I could tell, was twofold:

• Gay people just…are. They are different from the majority, but they aren’t trying to impose their own lifestyles on others. Instead, it’s the opposite. We try and impose the majority will and lifestyle on this minority without regard for any semblance of tolerance.
• The struggle for Gay rights was/is more than a political statement. It is a struggle for life itself. No different than seeking women’s rights, or racial equality.

This film has greater than an 8 rating on the IMDB score, which is phenomenal. So I highly recommend that you check it out. And if it wins, I’d definitely support that decision. It is a worthy piece of cinematography.

Milk Movie Trailer

The story of California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone by San Francisco Supervisor Dan White.