Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Film / History Crying Over Killed Milk
Posted by Lindy West on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 4:04 PM
In the film section this week, we've got two lovely reviews of Milk, the Harvey Milk biopic that opens today. They're both great, and you should read them both here.
David Schmader takes on Milk the film:
As always, major props must go to Milk the man, the gay late bloomer who became a political force, and whose life story is packed with enough gay drama, political intrigue, and true crime to fuel one of Milk's beloved operas. As for the living artists behind Milk, they deserve props of their own. Working in his straightforward Hollywood mode, director Van Sant gets the job done and stays in the background, his presence felt most strongly in the film's comfortably unabashed sexuality. (There's tongue in the first five minutes.) But the lion's share of credit for Milk's success belongs to star Sean Penn, whose devotion to the film helped secure its production, and whose performance in the title role is a major accomplishment: quietly amazing, simultaneously lived-in and spontaneous, his best ever.
Eli Sanders takes on Milk the sobering-lesson-for-modern-gay-rights-activists:
There will no doubt be a certain pride at feeling that Milk's legacy of in-the-streets activism is alive and well. But, if the facts are considered, beneath that pride will be a certain amount of disappointment. Disappointment that we're still having this insane debate so many years after Milk, with his trademark humor and fury, called it insane in the streets of the Castro. And disappointment that in 2008, gay Californians were not able to beat back an antigay statewide proposition in the same way that Milk, as the film reminds us, beat back the antigay Proposition 6 in California in 1978.The cold fact is that gay-rights advocates, for all their outrage and action after Prop 8 passed, were not able to successfully implement the simple lessons of the Milk-led victory over Prop 6: Talk to your opponents, win over as many of them as you can on the merits of your argument, and, because you'll never win them all over, do everything in your power to expand your urban base and drive your core supporters to the polls.
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3
Too bad Milk didn't open wide, at least in California, before the election. Maybe things would have turned out differently.
4
Oh, man. Your headline is sooooooo much more offensive than that Seattle Times header, Lindy.
If you need me, I'll be crying under my desk.
If you need me, I'll be crying under my desk.
9
@3, your point is well taken. According to the terrific Gus Van Sant interview at FilminFocus, they decided to split the difference, i.e. to premiere before the election and to open afterwards. Van Sant predicts the movie will have a longer theatrical life that way. And I agree with David and Eli: it's an amazing piece of work.
13
Eli is right: We need to talk to people, not shout and demonize them. It's hard to do this when you're angry but in that direction lies victory. Trust me on this.
16
Just got back from the night showing - amazing. Great on all angles - personal story, inspirational hero, political wonkery, "show how the bigots haven't changed at all" - was all weepy at the end. Friend of mine declared, "This is one of those movies everyone should see."
17
@11--- Humor?
Why don't you ask Diane Feinstein about it. She had to find a pulse by sticking her fingers in bullet holes. She must just laugh herself to sleep.
Buy a sense of humor....you, asshole.
Why don't you ask Diane Feinstein about it. She had to find a pulse by sticking her fingers in bullet holes. She must just laugh herself to sleep.
Buy a sense of humor....you, asshole.
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