Living life upfront, living it full

There have been many illustrations of Harvey Milk’s life including books, a documentary by Rob Epstein, a soap opera by Stewart Wallace and now Milk, a biopic about the first openly Gay man to be elected to a major public office (city supervisor in San Francisco, CA, 1978) in the USA.

He was also recognised for his outspokenness regarding human rights issues.

In this film, director Gus Van Sant employs a framework that shows Milk (Sean Penn) narrating the details of his life into a tape-recorder.

The first 40 years of his life were spent in the closet hiding his true self and it’s only when he’s about to reach his fortieth year and find his one true love Scott Smith (James Franco) that he decides to come out and live his life in the open, moving to San Francisco in 1972 to live on Castro Street, the heart of the city’s gay community.

Milk starts to get more and more involved in his communities issues finally leading up to his political maturity, attaining the city supervisor post and then to his assassination by a fellow colleague.

Milk is a superbly authentic depiction of the relentless and persuasive zeal of a human rights activist whose fight for freedom and true liberation from bigotry is as heartening as it is awe-inspiring. Van Sant uses actual news footage from those times (30 years ago) to add more power to the historical recreation.

Van Sant and Dustin Lance Black’s screenplay makes all the right historical references, adds momentous events from the movement and brings to the fore the conflicts that reigned during that time.

The film covers the entire birth and initial life of the gay movement in a short span of time.The facts are all there and you can’t help but feel amazed and inspired by Milk’s commitment and sincere zeal.

The cinematography is intimate and revealing, while the editing keeps the pace eventful and brimming with action and interaction. The recreation of the period is meticulous and the gay world is portrayed with unflagging truth and honesty.

The performances are truly life-like. You know Sean Penn is in the movie because of the credits but at no point does he call attention to his star persona. He is at one with Harvey Milk and therein lies his true triumph. In fact all the actors are brilliant in their respective roles.

Harvey Milk’s world may in all probability, appear alien to a conservative India still struggling with heterosexual PDA’s and may therefore not find many takers among the general movie-going public as such. But for those who revel in great movie moments and are unafraid to challenge heterosexual stereotypes, this one movie is a revelation, a definite must-see!