Milk
Milk is a Gus Van Sant biopic about Harvey Milk, a San Franciscan who was the first openly gay man ever elected to public office in the USA. That today this would be no phenomenon at all speaks volumes as to the progress made since the ‘70’s. As a neophyte campaigner the power of his demographic once organized started to become clear although it took several tries before winning a seat as a city supervisor. It wasn’t until he faced off against the Anita Bryant’s of the world however that he realized putting that power to work wasn’t just a local political plank but a national fight for survival. Heavyweights like Canadian Victor Garber play supporting characters along with Emile Hirsch and James Franco as two of Milk’s boy toys and Josh Brolin in a seemingly minor but ultimately pivotal role. Told with the aid of some fascinating archival footage of the City by the Bay and some poetic camera angles Sean Penn is brilliant as Milk who was gunned down along with the mayor of San Francisco just after his biggest triumph in defeating proposition 6 that would ban gays teaching in California public schools. Surprisingly his assassin was a lot closer than any of the crank anonymous homophobes who made a multitude of worrisome death threats.