- Also Known As:
- Unknown
- Year:
- 2008
- Country/ies:
- USA
- Predominant Genre:
- Non-fiction
- Author(s)/Director(s):
- Gus VAN SANT
- Best Performance(s):
- Josh BROLIN
- Sean PENN
- Premiss:
- Harvey Milk becomes California’s first openly-gay elected official.
- Theme(s):
- Self-expression
- Compassion
- Totalitarianism
- Political Correctness
- White supremacy
- Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
- The Times of Harvey Milk
- Review Format:
- DVD
A technically good movie but the characterization is rather flat.
That homosexuals must “come out” to be politically effective since not doing so simply gives more power to homophobes who themselves have little fear of openly-expressing their Christian-based self-hatred. They must do this both as people and as political actors in a given culture.
There is no need to feel shame about your sexual choices and thus no excuse for gays not to have equal civil rights. Otherwise, the inevitable reaction will be the kind of civil war that will be inevitably blamed on the very gays being oppressed - as an allegedly inevitable consequence of their gayness. As so often with social change, violence is in attendance while it always seems fated that social improvers are to be martyred for their passionate love of self and others.
Apart from the usual cleverness one comes to expect of both Josh BROLIN and Sean PENN’s performances, this film fails to be anything more than agitprop incapable of gaining us a true insight into the people portrayed. It becomes something of a leaden retelling of historical events whose chronology is altered to make it, in any way, bearable to watch.
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