Milk (2008)

Milk is a 2008 biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It is directed by Gus Van Sant, and stars Sean Penn as Milk, and Josh Brolin as Milk’s assassin, Supervisor Dan White. The film was acclaimed when released and earned numerous accolades from film critics and guilds. Ultimately, it received 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, winning two for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Penn and Best Original Screenplay for Dustin Lance Black.

Attempts to put Milk’s life to film followed a 1984 Oscar-winning documentary of his life and the aftermath of his assassination, titled The Times of Harvey Milk, which was loosely based upon Randy Shilts’ biography, The Mayor of Castro Street. Various scripts were considered in the early 1990s, but projects fell through for different reasons, until 2007. Much of Milk was filmed on Castro Street and various locations in San Francisco, including Milk’s former storefront, Castro Camera.

Milk begins on Harvey Milk’s 40th birthday, when he was living in New York and had not yet settled in San Francisco. It chronicles his foray into city politics, and the various battles he waged in the Castro neighborhood as well as throughout the city, and political campaigns to limit the rights of gay people in 1977 and 1978 run by Anita Bryant and John Briggs. His romantic and political relationships are also addressed, as is his tenuous affiliation with troubled Supervisor Dan White; the film ends with White’s double murder of Milk and Mayor George Moscone. The film’s release was tied to the 2008 statewide voter referendum on gay marriage, Proposition 8, when it made its premiere at the Castro Theater two weeks before election day.

Plot

Milk opens with archival footage of police raiding gay bars and arresting patrons during the 1950s and 1960s, followed by Dianne Feinstein’s November 27, 1978, announcement to the press that Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone have been assassinated. Milk is seen recording his will throughout the film, nine days (November 18, 1978) before the assassinations. The film then flashes back to New York City in 1970, the eve of Milk’s 40th birthday and his first meeting with his much younger lover, Scott Smith.

Unsatisfied with his life and in need of a change, Milk and Smith decide to move to San Francisco in the hope of finding larger acceptance of their relationship. They open Castro Camera in the heart of Eureka Valley, a working class neighborhood in the process of evolving into a predominantly gay neighborhood known as The Castro. Frustrated by the opposition they encounter in the once Irish-Catholic neighborhood, Milk utilizes his background as a businessman to become a gay activist, eventually becoming a mentor for Cleve Jones. Early on, Smith serves as Milk’s campaign manager, but his frustration grows with Milk’s obsessive devotion to politics, and he leaves him. Milk later meets Jack Lira, a sweet-natured but unbalanced young man. As with Smith, however, Lira cannot tolerate Milk’s devotion to political activism, and eventually hangs himself.

After two unsuccessful political campaigns in 1973 and 1975 to become a city supervisor and a third in 1976 for the California State Assembly, Milk finally wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 for District 5. His victory makes him the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in the United States. Milk subsequently meets fellow Supervisor Dan White, a Vietnam veteran and former police officer and firefighter. White, who is politically and socially conservative, has a difficult relationship with Milk. He has a growing resentment for Milk, largely due to the attention paid to Milk by the press and his colleagues.

Milk and White forge a complex working relationship. Milk is invited to, and attends, the christening of White’s first child, and White asks for Milk’s assistance in preventing a psychiatric hospital from opening in White’s district, possibly in exchange for White’s support of Milk’s citywide gay rights ordinance. When Milk fails to support White, White feels betrayed, and ultimately becomes the sole vote against the gay rights ordinance. Milk also launches an effort to defeat Proposition 6, an initiative on the California state ballot in November 1978. Sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator from Orange County, Proposition 6 seeks to ban gays and lesbians (in addition to anyone who supports them) from working in California’s public schools. It is also part of a nationwide conservative movement that starts with the successful campaign headed by Anita Bryant and her organization Save Our Children in Dade County, Florida to repeal a local gay rights ordinance. On November 7, 1978, after working tirelessly against Proposition 6, Milk and his supporters rejoice in the wake of its defeat. The increasingly unstable White is in favor of a supervisor pay raise, but does not get much support, and shortly after supporting the Proposition, resigns from the Board. He later changes his mind and asks the city to rescind his decision. Mayor George Moscone denies his request, after having been lobbied by Milk to do so.

On the morning of November 27, 1978, White enters San Francisco City Hall through a basement window in order to conceal a gun from metal detectors. He requests another meeting with Moscone, who rebuffs his request for re-appointment. Enraged, White shoots Moscone and then Milk. The film suggests that Milk believed that White might be a closeted gay man.

The film ends with an aerial shot of the candlelight vigil held by thousands for Milk and Moscone throughout the streets of the city.

Production

In early 1991, Oliver Stone was planning to produce, but not direct, a movie on Milk’s life; he wrote a script for the movie, called The Mayor of Castro Street. In July 1992, director Gus Van Sant was signed with Warner Bros. to direct the biopic with actor Robin Williams in the lead role. By April 1993, Van Sant parted ways with the studio, citing creative differences. Other actors considered for Harvey Milk at time were Richard Gere, Daniel Day-Lewis and James Woods In April 2007, the director sought to direct the biopic based on a script by Dustin Lance Black, while at the same time, director Bryan Singer was developing The Mayor of Castro Street, which had been in development hell. By the following September, Sean Penn was attached to play Harvey Milk and Matt Damon was attached to play Milk’s assassin, Dan White. Damon pulled out later in September due to scheduling conflicts. By November, Focus Features moved forward with Van Sant’s production, Milk, while Singer’s project ran into trouble with the writers’ strike. In December 2007, actors Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, and James Franco joined Milk, with Brolin replacing Damon as Dan White. Milk began filming on location in San Francisco in January 2008.

Filmmakers researched San Francisco’s history in the city’s Gay and Lesbian Archives and talked to people who knew Milk to shape their approach to the era. They also revisited the location of Milk’s camera shop on Castro Street and dressed the street to match the film’s 1970s setting. The camera shop, which had become a gift shop, was bought out by filmmakers for a couple of months to use in production. Production on Castro Street also revitalized the Castro Theatre, whose facade was repainted and whose neon marquee was redone. Filming also took place at the San Francisco City Hall, while White’s office, where Milk was assassinated, was recreated elsewhere due to the city hall’s offices having become more modern. Filmmakers also intended to show a view of the San Francisco Opera House from the redesign of White’s office. Filming finished March 2008.

Cast & Credits

• Directed by: Gus Van Sant
• Produced by: Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
• Written by: Dustin Lance Black
• Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare, Alison Pill, Lucas Grabeel, Stephen Spinella, Joseph Cross, Jeff Koons, Ashlee Temple
• Music by: Danny Elfman
• Cinematography: Harris Savides
• Editing by: Elliot Graham

Other Information

• Distributed by: Focus Features
• Release dates: November 26, 2008 (limited); January 30, 2009 (wide)
• Running time: 128 min.
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Budget: $15,000,000
• Gross revenue: $28,853,456

Links

• Official site
• Film’s script
• CineSource Article on Film Production in SF’s Castro District
• Milk at the Internet Movie Database
• Milk at Allmovie
• Milk at Box Office Mojo
• Milk at Rotten Tomatoes
• Milk at Metacritic
• Milk: A film review
• Milk at Find Any Film

Incoming search terms:

• wu chun in black wu zhun

Tags: Academy Award, Milk, Sean Penn, Warner Bros