Milk (2008)

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writer: Dustin Lance Black

Composer: Danny Elfman

Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O'Hare, Joseph Cross, Stephen Spinella, Lucas Grabeel, Brandon Boyce, Howard Rosenman, Kelvin Yu

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His life changed history. His courage changed lives.

Plot: The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Great performances.  I've been in the storefront that Milk's shop occupied in the 70s but I knew little of the man until I entered.  It's a wonderful area of San Francisco (the Castro Theater across the street is FUCKING AMAZING!!!).  Watching this proves again how talented Sean Penn is.  He embodies Milk with such charisma and likability.  If you didn't know about Milk's demise going in, you find out within a couple of minutes that he was assassinated by Dan White who had just murdered the Mayor moments earlier.  That scene is very well handled and it packs an emotional wallop that lesser directors would have rushed, losing all effectiveness.  Brolin as White is good as the bad guy of sorts.  Hell, the whole cast is great.  I didn't even recognize Hirsch as Cleve Jones.  I first took notice of him from his excellent turn in WHIPLASH (2014) that premiered at this years Sundance Film Festival.  Granted, MILK was six years ago and he was in glasses, fro, etc.  If I hadn't seen Danny Elfman's name in the credits I would have no idea that was his score.  It's so different than what I'm used to hearing from him.  Nice.  For the past several days I've seen one film after another with a subdued, relaxing score.  Hmmmmmm.  Harvey Milk was a remarkable man that made a powerful impact in such a short span of time and this picture paints a positive and inspiring picture.