Milk is a story about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in the United States. He was a pioneer for civil rights and a man with a heart for those that were different and forgotten about by society. Milk is currently playing in a few theaters across the country, and I hope that it will soon be playing everywhere.
Sean Penn is amazing as Harvey Milk, as is James Franco, Josh Brolin and Diego Luna. From the first few minutes, I was immediately drawn into the 1970's in San Francisco. I cared for the characters and I related to their desire for something big to happen, and for their need to be a part of it.
It is easy to see the similarities between the situations and fight for civil rights and glbt rights at the time this took place, and the Proposition 8 debacle in California this year. I found my self realizing how amazingly appropriate this movie is right now, and I am amazed at its timing (considering it was in production far before Proposition 8 was an issue).
Throughout the film, I found myself wondering how the rest of the country is going to take this movie. Are straight people going to like it? Are people that are not GLBT allies or supporters going to like it, will they even see it? Is this movie preaching to the choir? I sure as hell hope not. It reaches far beyond appealing to just gays because of the subject matter, this is a movie about a man that defied those that said he couldn't, over and over and over. This is a story about love, loving others and believing so firmly in something that you would give anything and everything for it. I think we can all relate to that.
This is the kind of movie that I will see again, because it has heart, and passion and tragedy, but mainly because I want to continue to be told that I can make a difference. I need to be told that I can make a difference in order to have the strength to go and be unbelievable in this world.
