Anyone want to discuss MILK? — Page 3

It's a beautiful piece of work, though sometimes its strength -- the narrow focus -- feels like a liability. That's because to track a constantly re-starting political career with similar ups/downs, it's necessarily repetitive in places, particularly in the sequences with the Deigo Luna character -- the story's obstacle as surely as Dan White is -- who wears out his welcome with us as he did in Milk's life. I don't think we could bear another second of screen time for this self-destructive relationship -- a drag on the man, a drag on the Milk character in the Milk story.

The recreation of the era is almost perfect, and Penn is, as usual, a revelation. I especially liked his (and Van Sant's) lower key presence in sequences that could be over the top. It's a very modulated performance, so that we don't have him in our face, "recruiting" us to the actor's acting. I think that kind of modulation and subtlety is hard to achieve, something experience and a good director make happen. As I said to someone earlier, he does the opposite of Jolie in CHANGELING -- he fills the screen with Milk, not Penn. Critical, that.

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Is it the performance, the character, or a combination? I found myself wondering, too, if some stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (justifying his inclusion in Harvey's life, and the film's center). But maybe that's impossible. Mabye the material itself whines as much as the unappealing character/actor (that beard!) I tried to cut Van Sant some slack, because he so wanted to avoid a saintly portrayl that suggested a man like Harvey only picked up 20 versions of James Franco for his whole life. If only, right? Who among us hasn't been traped for a nigh, a week, a month, or even longer with an intrusive paramour we'd do better not to have met at all? Perhaps that's part of the artistic intention, to be totally honest in the portrayal of inappropriate people he glomed onto and vice versa.

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I agree that this film should be required viewing and was knocked over by how powerfully topical it is. I hope this film reminds all who see it that we must continue to fight. That our fight can NOT be a Fall fad.

And, I, too, highly recommend The Mayor of Castro Street and anything written by Randy Shilts.

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JRB, after re-reading The Mayor of Castro Street I re-read "And the Band Played On"--which is such a fine piece of journalism, isn't it? Urgent and compelling and impossible to put down, and so interesting to read given what we know in 2008 too. It was especially fascinating to read about the warfare between the French and American scientists back then knowing that Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier had just been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize too.

I finally picked up "Conduct Unbecoming" too, which is a Shilts I didn't read, I think because my intro to Shilts had been "Band" which lead back to "Mayor" and when "Conduct" was published I just never got around to it.

He was a creep and not so mucking fuch.

Just saw this film tonight, and quite honestly, I can't remember the last time I had such an emotional reaction to a film. I wasn't sobbing at the end, but I just sat there at the end with this inability to stop the tears coming. I sat there for the whole of the credits, as did many others in my theatre, and my boyfriend just sat with me and held my hand while I processed. I just felt such a horrible feeling of inadequacy; what have I done with my life? Sure, I'm just 21, but my life seems so inconsequential in comparison. What's even worse is that I had no knowledge of who Harvey Milk was until trailers for this film came out.

If people can be as educated and inspired by this film as I have been, that will be its greatest success.

"The question is, what are you going to do with your life and what are you going to do now to make sure it happens?"

Amen.

And, now you know what is possible.

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One of the most powerful films I have ever seen. Agree with PJ that it should be required viewing.

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Such a beautiful film.

My, but that's labored.

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I never liked James Franco until this film. He was refreshingly understated.
On a side note, I remember when Milk was killed, it was only about 10 days after the Jonestown suicides/murders, and California was still reeling from that tragedy. Nationally, that story somewhat overshadowed the Milk/Moscone assasinations for a while.