Emotional and Intellectually Compelling “Milk” by Gus Van Sant Stars Sean Penn As Iconic Gay Rights Activist

 

by Sam Juliano

Gus Van Sant’s new film Milk, is less a film biography of a life cut short by violence than it is a story of a “movement”, that continues to grow today despite some bizarre recent setbacks.  The passage of Proposition 8 in California, which bans gay marriages, has that ‘temporary’ ring, but it’s a wake-up call to those who feel that the mission will be free of obstacles.     

Van Sant’s career has been mainly experimental and art-house, but he went mainstream a few times with films like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester, the former of which was a reasonably decent film that attracted solid reviews and award attention.  His best films have been the ones where his artistry has broached metaphysical and metaphorical contexts in films like Elephant, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and earlier this year with Paranoid Park.  He is most interesting as a ‘visual’ filmmaker, and together with deft cinematographer Harris Savides, who is again on board for Milk, Van Sant has crafted some of the most visceral and provocative images in modern American cinema, often at the expense of linear narratives.  Milk is neither mainstream nor art house, but a most successful mix of the two.  The story of the gay man who becomes the first of his kind to win public office must be told with some rudimentary adherence to the facts and chronological order, but Van Sant uses flashbacks, flash-forwards and an effective ‘linking device’ to imbue his singular and invigorating directorial style on the proceedings.  The result is ‘compromised’ Van Sant for cinematic purists, but a fluid and insightful look at a turbulent time and one of it’s altogether fascinating central proponents.     

The release of the film coincides with the 30th anniversary of the assassination of the key figure in the acceptance of the gay lifestyle in California at a time when Anita Bryant was condemning such activity as perverted and an affront to God.  And Van Sant incorporated newsreel footage to excellent effect of Bryant’s speeches and the news reportage of them.  Milk may not be known to everyone outside the gay community and San Francisco, but he has been essayed over the years quite adequately, including in a very fine 1984 documentary, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, from which Van Sant has generously borrowed some segments from.     

One of the first segments of the film is a newsreel clip from November 27, 1978, when Dianne Feinstein, then president of the city’s council, (and current U. S. Senator) made public the chilling news that Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone had been brutally murdered in their City Hall offices by disgraced former supervisor Dan White.  The film then commences to return to the very beginning of Milk’s accendency to civic prominence.      

Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and his lover, Scott Smith (James Franco) head to San Francisco in 1972 and take up residence on the famed Castro Street and open a camera shop (where much of the film is subsequently ‘headquartered’)  Even with the neighborhood turning gay, several of the shop owners, like the police, are extremely hostile.  The outgoing and flamboyant Milk immediately rallies support, and several gay friends assume leadership positions in his inner circle, including Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), his closest confidante.  The film chronicles the early defeats Milk incurs, before his ultimate victory as City Supervisor, the first elected triumph for an ‘openly’ gay candidate in the nation.  Soon after his election, Milk becomes the leader in the fight against “Proposition 6,” a statewide initiative barring gays and lesbians from employment in California’s public schools.  The bill was sponsored by State Senator John Briggs, and it exploited parents’ fears that their children might be molested by gay teachers despite the preponderance of statistics that overwhelmingly showed that roughly 95% of child molesters are straight men.  The measure seemed certain to pass, but Milk’s leadership against it thrust him into the national spotlight, and his passionate but informed debates against the hateful, ignorant Briggs helped sway voters against it.  Van Sant splendidly related this campaign, and used a number of dazzling techniques, including a multi-split screen featuring phone callers.  Milk’s victory was especially an amazing achievement, as at that time numerous ant-gay measures were sweeping the country, led by the moralist Bryant.     

Running concurrent with the political episodes were Milk’s sexual trysts, which were handled with unfettered candor by Van Sant, who himself is gay.  In every sense of the word, the charismatic Penn, with his chameleon-like physical agility and studdied mannerisms gives an extraordinary, multi-leveled performance, that is probably a career-best.    Shown at the start as a wide-eyed hippie, Penn is later presented as having more savvy, as a consumate organizer and mediator.  And Penn has his amusing moments too, like the one where, knowing the value of good PR, the “showman” presses for ordinances to control the doggie poo problem, and during an interview he accidentally steps in a mound of dog feces for the benefit of the camera.  As a straight man, Penn’s scenes of affection seemed genuine and unforced.  As the protagonist of the tape recorder framing device, Penn’s ominous monotone pontifications seem to suggest an impending doom, which of course is well-known from the outset.     

Josh Brolin as Dan White perfectly embodies a man whose anger is slowing reaching the boiling point–a man who is hampered by demons and who explodes in violence.  Brolin’s quietly modulated performance, as opposed to the more comedic work he exhibited in W is further proof of his remarkable diversity.  Emile Hirsh, who worked with Penn in Into the Wild gives an engaging performances as Milk’s most impassioned supporter.  James Franco is adequate as Milk’s lover in a role that holds no surprises.     

If Milk at times seems nominally directed and edited, it’s because the material is presented historically with little textural embellishment.  Savides’s cinematography is often muted, grainy and dim, which in essence perfectly complements the many passages that employ newsreel clips.  The pathos-laden score by Tim Burton regular Danny Elfman is properly unobstrusive and is quietly effective.     

Van Sant presents his ultimately tragic tale as a celebration of life and the beginning of a movement that will inevitability result in the complete obliteration of social constrictions that were long governed by lingering hate and bigotry.  As such, it’s an often exhilarating film that gives this remarkable figure the stature he truly deserves.  Milk is one of the best pictures of the year.  

Rating: ****½ (out of *****)

Note:  I saw “Milk” on Thanksgiving evening at the Chelsea Cinemas in Manhattan with Lucille, Broadway Bob and Robert McCartney, all of whom issued effusive praised for Van Sant’s film.  Where did we eat?  Well, I won’t even go there, as Lucille and I (and all the kids) gouged ourselves at Lucille’s sister’s home in Butler, New Jersey earlier in the day.  NYC was almost deserted, but the show we attended did sell out as expected.