Milk is a historical drama (based on a true story) which premiered in 2008.
The topic is the life of the American politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Harvey Milk was born in 1930. This drama covers the final eight years of his life from 1970 to 1978.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** Director: Gus Van Sant
** Writer: Dustin Lance Black
** Based on or inspired by the documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk which premiered in 1984
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 128 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Sean Penn as Harvey Milk (1930-1978)
** Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones (born 1954)
** Josh Brolin as Dan White (1946-1985)
** Diego Luna as Jack Lira (1953-1978)
** James Franco as Scott Smith (1948-1995)
** Alison Pill as Anne Kronenberg (born 1954)
** Victor Garber as Mayor George Moscone (1929-1978)
** Dennis O’Hare as John Briggs (1930-2020)
** Kelvin Han Yee as Gordon Lau (1941-1998)
** Zachary Culbertson as Bill Kraus (1947-1986)
Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them here.
While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here.
Some facts may have been altered, added or excluded for dramatic reasons or practical purposes. But the basic story is true.
As stated above, this drama is based on or inspired by the documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk which premiered in 1984. Some clips in the drama are lifted from the documentary film.
Some historical moments, which were recorded while Harvey Milk was alive, have been recreated by actors in the drama.
When this happens, the dialogue is based on the words which were spoken by Harvey Milk and the people around him.
Sean Penn was chosen to portray Harvey Milk. This was a very good choice. Sean Penn really looks like Harvey Milk in this drama.
Josh Brolin was chosen to portray Dan White. This was a very good choice. Josh Brolin really looks like Dan White in this drama.
Harvey Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972. When he arrived in San Francisco, he started his own business. He opened a camera store on Castro Street. Since he was very active in the local area, he became known as the mayor of Castro Street.
Harvey Milk was openly gay. As a local politician, he supported the rights of gay men and lesbian women.
But he appealed to and worked with many other groups of people: minorities such as African Americans, Hispanics, and Chinese. He also addressed the concerns of senior citizens, women, and truck drivers.
He ran for public office in 1974, 1975, and 1976. Each time he lost, even though the number of votes he won was increasing. In 1977, the electoral system was changed. Candidates for the city council (known as the Board of Supervisors) no longer had to get their votes from the whole city. Instead, the city was divided into districts, and each district would pick a local winner.
Harvey Milk no longer had to find support all over San Francisco. He only had to win in his own district around Castro Street. This time he won. He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.
The new system also gave victory to the first African American candidate and to the first Chinese American candidate. The Board of Supervisors which was elected in 1977 showed more diversity than ever before.
Harvey Milk served only eleven months. In November 1978, Milk and Mayor Moscone were brutally killed by Dan White, a former city supervisor who had resigned his position a few days before, because his political line had lost in the city council on more than one occasion.
In this drama, we follow the life of Harvey Milk and the people around him.
We see how he and his associates manage to win some political victories. We also see glimpses of his personal life which is often quite chaotic.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
Here are some results:
75 percent = IMDb
83 percent = Meta
89 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
93 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment 21 ratings of this product, including 10 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.9 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 98 percent.
The ratings are very good, as you can see. I understand the numerous positive reviews, and I agree with many of them. But I cannot go all the way to the top.
Why not?
Because this drama has a flaw. It is good but not great. What is wrong? One detail is not mentioned. One detail has been excluded. What is missing?
The story of Oliver Sipple, Sara Jane Moore, Gerald Ford, and Harvey Milk
The story takes place in 1975, two years before Harvey wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors.
President Gerald Ford pays a visit to San Francisco. A crowd is waiting outside the hotel where the president has a meeting.
A young woman Sara Jane Moore is among the crowd. She has a gun. She wants to shoot Ford when he walks from the hotel to his car. Oliver Sipple, a former marine, is standing next to her.
When he sees the gun, he stops her. He saves the president’s life. He is a hero. He becomes a famous person.
Reporters want to interview him, but he does not want to talk to them.
Why not?
Because he has a secret. He is a gay man. But his family who lives in Detroit does not know this. He has not told them. He is still in the closet.
Harvey knows Oliver is gay.
According to Harvey, all gay men and all lesbian women should come out. According to Harvey, Oliver’s heroic deed is a great chance to show the world that a gay person can be a hero.
Harvey lets a reporter in San Francisco know that Oliver is gay. The story is reported in the local press. And from San Francisco, the story travels all over the US. It becomes a national story.
A gay man saved the life of the president!
When Oliver’s family in Detroit learns that he is gay, they are shocked. His parents disown him.
Oliver’s life begins to fall apart when his secret is revealed. He loses the will to live. In 1989, he is found dead in his apartment.
The story of Oliver Sipple is well documented. But it is not mentioned in the documentary film from 1984 or in the historical drama from 2008.
The story of Oliver is significant, because it shows that Harvey cared more about the cause and the movement than he cared about Oliver.
Harvey outed Oliver without his permission. This was not a sign of compassion and concern. This case reveals a serious flaw in Harvey’s character.
Why was the story of Oliver excluded from the film of 1984 and from the drama of 2008?
I suspect the reason is the same in both cases. The director did not wish to ruin a positive account of the main character.
But the decision to exclude this story is unfortunate. It means the account of Harvey’s life is not honest or comprehensive.
It is a flaw which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of this flaw. This is why I think this drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS. Cleve Jones (born 1954) is a gay activist who worked with Harvey Milk while he was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
In 1985, he conceived the idea of the Names Project, also known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt, whose purpose is to celebrate the lives of people who died of AIDS-related causes. The first display of memorial quilts was arranged in Washington, DC, in 1987.
REFERENCES
# 1. The following items are available online
Dana Stevens
“Fresh Milk,”
Slate
26 November 2008
David Edelstein
“Milk is much more than a martyr movie,”
National Public Radio
26 November 2008
Joanne Laurier
“Milk, identity politics and Gus Van Sant’s art,”
World Socialist Web Site
09 December 2008
Michael J. Bayly
“Where Milk Gets It Wrong,”
The Wild Reed
19 February 2009
Alex von Tunzelmann
“Milk – the creme de la creme of faithful biopics,”
The Guardian
05 August 2010
Rajveer Dhanak
“Everything Milk Doesn’t Tell You About the True Story,”
Looper
22 March 2023
# 2. Books
Stonewall
By Martin Duberman
(1993 = hardcover)
(2019 = paperback)
Harvey Milk: Pioneering Gay Politician
By Corinne Grinapol
(2014)
Killing Off the Lesbians: A Symbolic Annihilation on Film and Television
By Lis Millward, Janice G. Dodd, and Irene Fubara-Manuel
(2017)
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag
By Rob Sanders
(2018)
Harvey Milk: A Beacon of Hope and Equality
By Jones G. Strow
(2024)
# 3. Film and video
The Times of Harvey Milk
(1984)
Before Stonewall
(1984)
After Stonewall
(1999)
Stonewall Uprising
(2010)
Stonewall
A historical drama
(2015)
*****
The American politician
Harvey Milk
(1930-1978)
The first openly gay man to be elected
to public office in California
*****
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