The Reel Critic

Author: Josh Wessler

MOVIE: Milk
DIRECTOR: Gus Van Sant
STARRING: Sean Penn

The blend of archival news footage with a grainy filter leaves the impression that the essence of Harvey Milk's campaign is still immensely relevant. The effort in 1978 to defeat a California ballot initiative allowing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation parallels the recent passage in California of a law outlawing homosexual marriage - while 30 years ago civil rights activists defeated the explicitly bigoted legislation, voters in 2008 approved the measure.

"Milk" presents an important story for the history of gay civil rights battlegrounds of the 1970s. Harvey enters post-Haight San Francisco hoping to shed his closeted façade as an insurance agent in New York City and buy into the emerging gay scene on Castro Street. He galvanizes the neighborhood as a street shrink, speaking against police brutality and discrimination. After losing several campaigns for city supervisor, he recreates himself in the image of the political machine he decries. A fortunate stroke of gerrymandering secures him the position as the first openly gay U.S. politician elected to higher office. He moves into City Hall, an imposing building that echoes the chambers of the U.S. Capital building. The oversized hallways and staircases resound with the crusted machinations of his fellow politicians, particularly fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). "Milk" succeeds in bringing the theatre of politics to City Hall's front steps, thus bridging the gap between state and activists. After a disjointed first half, the film begins to flow after Milk takes office. The filmmakers create the structure of City Hall as a space of opposition: safety and deceit, power and decay. A lack of focus, however, distracts from the tightly-constructed scenes of political play and personal struggle.

Josh Brolin presents arguably the film's best performance - he plays with White's contradictions without relying on pathological tropes - but his character does not quite fit within the plot. White's interactions with Milk lend an emotional complexity otherwise absent from the film. Brolin artfully communicates the murkier undertones of Milk's policy initiatives and of city government in general. Yet it feels pasted onto a story that depends too heavily on externalities of politics, namely physical violence. In "Milk," public demonstrations of anger overshadow the intricacies of doubt and motivation. Indeed, for all Milk's charisma and sympathy, his character on film is rather one-dimensional.

As Harvey Milk, Sean Penn achieves the balance between indefatigable will and subtle wit necessary for a successful activist who knows one must meet the opposition face-to-face in order to achieve lasting peace, rather than temporary victory. Towards his enemies, Penn's Milk threatens public humiliation while extending political safety for those who compromise. Yet there is little indication of the war weariness one might expect from such bitter efforts to ensure civil rights. The only significant glimpse of Milk's anxiety appears as a narrative hook - Milk records an audio will for posterity that is so far detached from the narrative that it says little about the human drama of hope, determination and prejudice. We are left with an ostensibly tragic character whose only flaw is his sexual orientation. In other words, he is not a credible character. As a whole, the film captures the aesthetic of reality without first establishing an authentic background. The paint runs thin occasionally and though the story is thoroughly inspiring and at times moving, there is not enough humanity to make the glow last.