I will say, this is a movie that gets better and better the more I think of it (as opposed to Slumdog, which is just getting a little worse and worse). The problem with the first half, I think, was the lack of a clear antagonist and a clear goal. Once those came into play (as Dan White and the defeat of Prop 6, respectively), everything got better. For me, it was specifically the scene in the dark living room where Harvey and Cleve rally the troops and whatsisname decides to call his dad to come out of the closet where things picked up.
I do disagree with this assertion about how great the timing of the release was. Releasing this movie three weeks after the defeat of Prop 8 is like releasing Fahrenheit 9/11 on November 5th. The soonest this will have any impact is in two years, and given our president-elect’s feelings on gay marriage, more like four. And to say it’s the only movie to be released in direct conjunction with modern political events is just silly. More than “W.”? More than Fahrenheit 9/11? More than “The China Syndrome”? Come ON.
Sean Penn was fantastic, and in a year that’s been ho-hum for great leading male performances anyhow, he’s far and away my favorite of the year. This would all be more notable if Sean Penn wasn’t ALWAYS incredible, but he deserves all the awards attention and wins he’ll surely receive.
In the end, what made this movie so good when it WAS good and so powerful all-in-all was that the crew behind it clearly recognized what I’ve always found to be the most emotionally gripping part of the story. Even during The Times of Harvey Milk, I was never moved by the man himself or by his tragic assassination. What always hit me was that candlelight vigil, and the stories of how many gay men (and, I imagine, a handful of women) were emboldened by Harvey’s election and public image to come out of the closet themselves and actually take pride in something that had once been the darkest of taboos. Dustin Black and Gus Van Sant GOT this. They opened their movie with footage of gay men covering their faces and their shame as police raided their gay bars, and closed it with footage, both staged and actual, of gays–probably some of the same ones–proudly walking Frisco streets in that candlelight vigil. And the choice to use stock footage of the actual event was brilliant. It’s easy to look out at a Hollywood re-enactment of those lights stretched out for blocks and blocks and say “Okay, but it probably wasn’t REALLY that big”. And then we cut wide to the stock shot and go “Holy shit. It WAS that big”. What that procession showed is the REAL significance of Harvey Milk–he was no messiah, not a perfect guy, but in his too-short life he helped get American homosexuality started on a path from shame to Pride. The message was a bit too overblown at times (in a WHEELCHAIR? Seriously?!?) but I’m glad it was there.
Filed under: Academy Awards, Commentary | Tags: Gus Van Sant, Milk, Sean Penn, The Times of Harvey Milk
[Elliot]
I will say, this is a movie that gets better and better the more I think of it (as opposed to Slumdog, which is just getting a little worse and worse). The problem with the first half, I think, was the lack of a clear antagonist and a clear goal. Once those came into play (as Dan White and the defeat of Prop 6, respectively), everything got better. For me, it was specifically the scene in the dark living room where Harvey and Cleve rally the troops and whatsisname decides to call his dad to come out of the closet where things picked up.
I do disagree with this assertion about how great the timing of the release was. Releasing this movie three weeks after the defeat of Prop 8 is like releasing Fahrenheit 9/11 on November 5th. The soonest this will have any impact is in two years, and given our president-elect’s feelings on gay marriage, more like four. And to say it’s the only movie to be released in direct conjunction with modern political events is just silly. More than “W.”? More than Fahrenheit 9/11? More than “The China Syndrome”? Come ON.
Sean Penn was fantastic, and in a year that’s been ho-hum for great leading male performances anyhow, he’s far and away my favorite of the year. This would all be more notable if Sean Penn wasn’t ALWAYS incredible, but he deserves all the awards attention and wins he’ll surely receive.
In the end, what made this movie so good when it WAS good and so powerful all-in-all was that the crew behind it clearly recognized what I’ve always found to be the most emotionally gripping part of the story. Even during The Times of Harvey Milk, I was never moved by the man himself or by his tragic assassination. What always hit me was that candlelight vigil, and the stories of how many gay men (and, I imagine, a handful of women) were emboldened by Harvey’s election and public image to come out of the closet themselves and actually take pride in something that had once been the darkest of taboos. Dustin Black and Gus Van Sant GOT this. They opened their movie with footage of gay men covering their faces and their shame as police raided their gay bars, and closed it with footage, both staged and actual, of gays–probably some of the same ones–proudly walking Frisco streets in that candlelight vigil. And the choice to use stock footage of the actual event was brilliant. It’s easy to look out at a Hollywood re-enactment of those lights stretched out for blocks and blocks and say “Okay, but it probably wasn’t REALLY that big”. And then we cut wide to the stock shot and go “Holy shit. It WAS that big”. What that procession showed is the REAL significance of Harvey Milk–he was no messiah, not a perfect guy, but in his too-short life he helped get American homosexuality started on a path from shame to Pride. The message was a bit too overblown at times (in a WHEELCHAIR? Seriously?!?) but I’m glad it was there.
No Comments Yet so far
Leave a comment