Milk (***)

The true life story of Harvey Milk is as moving as it is tragic. Gus Van Sant does a stellar job of taking us on this journey of one man's incredible plight for acceptance and change against seemingly insurmountable odds. As a biopic we know how the story ends with the tragic assasination of California's first openly gay elected official, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and Mayor George Moscone by San Francisco Supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). What we may not know is the obstacles he overcame to get there and how one man's courage to stand up for what he believed in created a movement that dynamically changed the perception for homosexuals in this country. On a relative scale, Harvey Milk has done and continues to do posthumously for homosexuals today that of which Martin Luther King, Jr. did and has done for African Americans. They were one in the same in that in the end they each paid the ultimate sacrifice for using a public platform to convey their message to inspire change, which is still being felt today. The possibility, and eventual likelihood, of same-sex marriage (California's widely controversial Proposition 8) and the now certainty of an African American President, with President elect Barack Obama taking office in January, were not possible without the efforts and sacrifices of Harvey Milk and MLK.

Is there anything Sean Penn cannot do? He's remarkable. He is so good that the label of being widely regarded as the "best actor of his generation" seems to be a grossly inadequate depiction of how talented he really is. Name another actor in his "generation" even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath, that's not a knock towards anyone else, it's deserving praise for Sean Penn. Go down his list of credits on IMDB and look at his body of work, he covers it all and you are undoubtedly convinced and moved with each performance. His work is remarkable, and according to co-star Josh Brolin in an interview with Charlie Rose, "his most admirable qualities are his humility and the fact that he is so unassuming."

The film opens in 1978 San Francisco with Milk sitting home alone speaking into a tape recorder regarding his fears of his own assassination. From there Van Sant takes you back to the free spirited Milk in 1970 with his lover Scott Smith (James Franco) pondering his current state of being and soul searching for what he wants out of life. He soon realizes that he wants to use politics as the forum to be the voice of homosexuals abroad and begins his first of four increasingly stronger campaigns to be elected to the Board of Supervisors for San Francisco. As each failed election passes his support continues to expand lead by his small team of young activists of Smith (Franco), Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), Anne Kronenberg (Alison Pil) and later Jack Lira (Diego Luna). In 1977 his persistence and ever increasing determination finally pays dividends as he wins the election.

Support continues to grow for Milk as he begins to plunge deeper and deeper into politics and the government with his political activism towards the rights of homosexuals. He is more than one man, his voice speaks for the entire homosexual community. Along the way friction mounts with Dan White (Brolin), who has befriended Milk in an effort to earn his vote. When Milk decides that he cannot vote with White as it would contradict his own political stance White grows increasingly agitated and unstable. Tension mounts and Milk's credentials and newly earned respect sways Mayor Moscone's decision to have White removed from office thus resulting in the nation jolting news that San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone have been assassinated by disgruntled Supervisor Dan White.

I am not a huge fan of biopic films per say, I enjoy them and always learn things I previously did not know from them but it's the retelling of a story that has already been told and although that is an art within itself I am not as drawn to them as I am to the figment of ones imagination being brought to life from scratch by the writing of it and the performances created. It's the old argument of what's more impressive, Sean Penn becoming Harvey Milk through hours of studying the real life man's every documented move or Penn's creating from scratch the multi layered vigilante Jimmy Markum in "Mystic River"? Maybe they're equal, maybe one's better than the other, I just know as uncanny as he was as Milk, my personal taste prefers the creation of Jimmy Markum, a fictional character completely created by his imagination and acting choices. At any rate, as far as biopic films go you will be hard pressed to find a more well done and more complete film than "Milk".