Milk

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Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to a public office in 1977 in San Francisco. He fought against a city ordinance that allowed companies to fire someone based on their sexual orientation. He also fought against a state proposition along the same lines and eerily similar to Proposition 8 that just passed in California. I believe if Milk was alive today, that would not have passed. He was very charismatic and spoke logically and passionately about his beliefs, including equal rights not only for gays and lesbians, but also minorities and the elderly. He really used the power of the people to make a change in his community.

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Sean Penn did an excellent job. He disappeared into the role. The other supporting characters were cast really well too. It would have been very easy for Josh Brolin to play the Dan White character (the man who assassinated both Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone) in an evil light, but he didn’t. He was more complex than that. He got along well with Harvey for the most part and Harvey had faith in him while they worked along side each other as City Supervisors of different districts. It appeared that some outside pressures eventually got to Dan and I really wish that had been shown more. It would have made the movie even longer though and it did veer a bit on the long side.

I did enjoy the real footage that was interwoven with the movie footage. It grounded the movie into reality, especially when the hate speech of Anita Blake from actual television interviews was played. It really hit home about biases clouding people’s judgment and how Milk’s message of hope of everyone getting along so much stronger.

Rating: A-

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