Got Milk? (Milk (DVD))

Member Name: TheChosen1

Product:	Milk (DVD)
Date:	08/04/09 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very inspiring and educational movie

Disadvantages: the movie does not cover Milk's entire life

About Harvey Milk

Harvey Bernard Milk was born during the era of the Great Depression (one of the worst economic downturns in modern history) to William and Minerva Karns Milk. Even as a youngster, Harvey was quite popular. Who would have ever thought that a person who seriously fought for gay rights was once a class clown?

Milk graduated New York State College for Teachers with a degree in Mathematics and was active in the school paper. He later served in the US Navy in the Korean War. Afterwards, he took up jobs such as being an insurance salesman, a researcher and shop owner of a small camera shop.
Along the way, Milk had a string of homosexual relationships. He seemed to gravitate towards younger men. He however, lived in a society which had laws that curtailed homosexuality. They were persecuted at that time.

Milk later on decided to enter his hat into the world of politics. He failed in his first attempts. However, he later won and was elected into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He championed several causes including promoting gay rights. Ironically his cause will be his ultimate undoing as shown later in the film.

About the Movie

The movie is filled with historical snippets which add to the movie's credibility. It shows about how the gays were persecuted and treated as badly as the African-Americans were. This shows despite America being "the land of the free," discrimination has reared its ugly head time and time again in its history.

The film may have been made in 2008, but looks and feels like a seventies film. The film used the language and the culture that was present in the seventies. The film is biographical in nature so do not expect a plethora of special effects here. The film had very good sound quality though. This was essential since many of the scenes involved dialogues or at least people talking.

The story revolves around Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into public office in the United States. The story would not show his whole life story but would focus on his political life, his advocacies and his relationships.

During the time, gays were openly persecuted by both the people and the law. A dejected Harvey Milk finally realized that enough is enough and it is time for a change. He decides that if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. So he decided to run for public office. He failed in his first two tries but third time was a charm and he became the first openly gay man to hold public office in the United States.

During his time, he openly fought for gay rights. Despite the constant threats to his life, he never wavered. He even had opposition in the board. This was in the person of Dan White, a fellow supervisor. Dan was anti-gay.
Harvey also vehemently fought against Proposition 6. It was sponsored by John Briggs. This law disallowed gays from working in public schools. Any gay who was already in the school system could get fired right away.

Harvey was a leader. He had the charm and was always at the forefront of the battle. He spoke with power and gained a substantial following. He walked the talk.

Though Harvey's political career my have been brief, in life what counts is the quality not the quantity. Sure some public officials may have stayed in power for twenty or even thirty years. But what have they done? Harvey did a lot for the gay community in his brief stint and helped changed America towards accepting them.

Video

Widescreen 1.85:1

Audio

Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras

Remembering Harvey - This is a feature where Harvey Milks close friends and associates remember their experience with Harvey Milk. They would talk about how this great man touched their lives.

Hollywood Comes to San Francisco - This was an insider perspective into Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant. It also discussed about shooting the film in the actual places where they actually happened.

Marching for Equality - This chronicles the shooting of gay-rights marches. These people protested on the unfair treatment of gays and wanted equal rights. It also has interviews of people who looked up to Harvey Milk.

Three deleted scenes which run for less than four minutes

The Verdict

I would like to express my stance against discrimination of any form. That is a big reason the world is not the way it should be. People always want the whole world to be as they see it. Why not simply respect the differences in people? We do not want the same things and we do not act the same way. I wish people just accepted that.

I am surprised to see people being deprived of their rights by the people who are supposed to be protecting them. The authorities suppressed gays instead of helping them. Being a gay to them was tantamount to being a criminal.

Sean Penn portrayed his part beautifully. He was very charismatic and energetic as Harvey Milk. He portrayed Harvey Milk as a man who was idealistic and courageous. There was a scene where he gave a public speech. He wore a white t-shirt and even sounded and looked like Rowdy Roddy Piper in doing a promo.

Josh Brolin executed his role to a tee. He was very brash and arrogant in his role as Dan White, the foil to Harvey Milk. He makes for a very good villain in the movie as he is a bigot, a self-righteous and pompous individual. This guy was downright annoying. He plays a great heel character.

The film is very relevant to today's times. Even though gays are no longer being hunted like they were before, they are still being discriminated. They often are the butt of jokes. They are often seen in a lesser light as compared to straight people.

If you look at the contributions of gays to society, there have been a lot. They currently are pacing the world in terms of fashion design, show business and other areas. Some famous gays are George Michael, John Amaechi, Pat Patterson, Neil Patrick Harris and Boy George.

Harvey Milk was truly a visionary and was ahead of his time. He was also a very courageous and idealistic leader who was willing to risk it all for his causes. It is sad though that he had a very short political career. We need people like Harvey Milk especially during these challenging times.
I recommend this movie to everyone. This is a truly inspiring film. It was truly worth the Oscars it had won.

© TheChosen1. Review is published in other sites under the same name

-Previously published in Ciao

Summary: This is a review of Milk DVD.