Harvey Milk

In my quest to see as many Oscar-nominated movies as I can before the Academy Awards on Feb. 22, I saw "Milk" yesterday. It's nominated for best picture, director and actor (Sean Penn in the title role.)


Although Penn was phenomenal, I left the theater at first thinking that the film itself deserved three, maybe three and a half stars. But this is one of those films that has stuck with me, and I have found myself thinking about it on several different levels in the past day. To me, that's always a sign of a good flick, when it makes me think about it for some time afterwards. Although I loved "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", neither of them, but particularly SD, had much staying power with me once the end credits rolled.
I only vaguely remembered reading much about Harvey Milk's assassination in 1978, just about a month before my 21st birthday. And after reading up on it after seeing the movie, I think I know why it didn't stick with me at the time. In part, it was because that incident was greatly overshadowed by another big story that occurred just 10 days before Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were shot to death by Dan White.


That incident was the mass suicide in Guyana of more than 900 people who belonged to the Peoples Temple, a sort of cult group led by Jim Jones (above.) The somewhat ironic thing is that the Peoples Temple was headquartered in San Francisco, and both Milk and Moscone had been supportive of Jones because of his political activism and ability to deliver votes for them. I had no idea of the connection between those two major news stories.

Another fascinating thing about "Milk" was its references to a newsmaking vote in Wichita in 1977, when voters here rejected an ordinance aimed at protecting gays from discrimination in jobs, housing, etc. The Wichita vote, along with a couple of others around the nation at that time, was instrumental in mobilizing the large gay population in SF to get serious about using political activism to win more rights.

So, although I wouldn't be opposed at all to "Slumdog Millionaire" or "Benjamin Button" winning the best picture honor, I have changed my initial views about "Milk's" worthiness and believe that it is as deserving as any of those nominated.