You gotta give 'em hope.

[starlady]

So I went with Spike and her friend M to see "Milk" very late last night and...it was excellent. Christopher Orr was going on in The New Republic about how this movie is 20 years too late, and rips off the 1984 documentary about Milk, but I disagree with him categorically on the first count (how could this movie have been made 20 years ago? it couldn't), and as for the second, there's a long tradition of feature films ripping off documentaries, with no dishonor on either side (see "I'm Not There"; the director remakes several well-known Dylan documentaries shot-for-shot at points in that film). First off, let me just say that the opera "Tosca" should get some sort of special award for serving as a set piece in multiple holidays movies--not only "Quantum of Solace" but now "Milk" as well. I have to admit that a) I love that opera; and b) I'd much rather see the production that Bond crashed. But this is all window-dressing. To put it bluntly, Sean Penn is amazing in the title role; I think he smiles more in this movie than in all his previous roles combined. Happiness as a political force, normative and propulsory: who knew? Josh Brolin of course was great as Dan White, though I'm not sure I really bought the "he might be in the closet" theory. I guess he did stand a little too close at times. For my money I'd rather have had a bit more background on Mayor George Moscone (played by the same actor who played Jack on "Alias"!), who was clearly an interesting and progressive guy in his own right. But his name's not on the marquee. It's interesting to see the movie through the prism of what came in the 80s--i.e. AIDS--particularly with the knowledge that Case 0 probably developed the disease in 1977, the same year Milk finally won election. It's a good thing the gay civil rights movement started in the 70s, because if it had waited any longer it would have been entirely subsumed by the response to H.I.V. (which for most of the 80s was: dying). And if any one is looking for a devastating account of what it was like in gay America in that later era, I can't recommend Samuel R. Delany's Flight from Neveryon highly enough.

On the note of civil rights, I of course couldn't help but see Milk as a sort of gay Alice Paul and the "establishment" gay figures of San Francisco as Carrie Ann Chapman and the N.O.W. (I'm talking about the women's suffrage movement). It's clear that in America, if you want your civil rights, appeasement is not an option; your only option is public, prominent and if need be violent (see Alice Paul above) struggle to get what the Constitution promised you. Milk was shot 30 years ago this week, and I of course saw the movie as an indictment yet again of America's fatal imbroglio with assassination politics. What is it about this country that the first answer is to shoot someone? I really hope that that's one mroe legacy of the 60s that we can leave behind. And speaking of the 60s, it was impossible not to connect the events of the film both with Barack Obama's campaign and Proposition 8--to which I say, so much the better. The more times change, the more they stay the same, except when someone like Milk, or Alice Paul, or Martin Luther King Jr.--and perhaps even Obama himself--comes along and changes the rules of the game.

Comments

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

been reading good reviews about this movie. can't wait to see it...though it's not playing at any of the local theaters. :(

[spacevlad.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see this too, and you're absolutely right about the timing. I don't know if the makers of the movie planned it on purpose, but to release the movie just weeks after the election of Obama and the tragic passing of Prop 8 is...well, "timely" is an understatement.

I have a feeling I'll be able to get over my general dislike of Sean Penn to like "Milk". He's another one of those actors, kind of like I feel about Tom Cruise, who I don't like in real life...but there's no denying he has fine acting skill. I look forward to him lightening up for once.

PS: Still haven't seen Bond, and I'm starting to debate whether I should see it in theatres or just wait for the blu-ray and watch it on Matt's giant theatre setup in the basement. What do you think?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Well, I always feel that seeing films in the cinema is an essential part of the experience, but I also lack a home theatre. I want to see it again, I think, before it leaves the theatres.