Essay on the Case of Harvey Milk

Homosexuality, in 1970s, was frowned upon and therefore the idea of someone with different sexual preferences holding office was almost an impossibility. As the United States was evolving during the 70s, gays and lesbians began fighting for their rights. The voice of this phenomenal movement was that of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man, who has won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is now regarded as the hero of the gay population.

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The film begins with a documentary footage of a police raid on a gay bar in Miami in the 1960s. The images of men hiding from the camera while being herded into police vans provide a potent reminder of a not-too-distant era in American history when homosexuality was criminalized. Then, the film cuts to footage of Superintendent Diane Feinstein making the announcement that Milk and Mayor George Moscone had been murdered. In the next scene, we meet Sean Penn as Harvey Milk sitting at his kitchen table, taping a statement to be played in the event of his assassination. Most of the rest of the film consists of flashbacks from his monolog (Bradshaw).

Milk traveled from New York to San Francisco to settle down in 1972. He catches the eye of a curly-haired Scott Smith (James Franco), many years his junior on the steps of a New York subway station. Secretly, Milk makes sure no one's around watching, when he suddenly has a "meet cute" moment and forwardly tells the young man in front of him, "My name is Harvey Milk", and starts in on a lengthy talk about his birthday happening tomorrow and how he just moved to the city and didn't know anyone and how he doesn't want to spend his birthday by himself and all the while he and Smith seem magnetically drawn to one another, inching closer and closer, until they kiss, just after Smith insists he doesn't date guys over 40 and Milk checks his watch before saying, "Well, today's my lucky day, because I'm 39 until 12:01 tonight". Scott witnesses the persecution of gay men and becomes an active proponent for LGBT rights. Milk with his lover Scott (James Franco), they moved to San Francisco from New York. He starts out in San Francisco's Castro district as a small business-owner which was Milks own camera shop on Castro Street, San Franciscos notable gay district. The storefront business soon becomes the hub of neighborhood political activity and Milk decides to run for political office.

Inspired by the Watergate Scandal, Milk decided to create change through politics. Using the gay community as his voting base, Milk wanted to ally himself with the other minorities in the city. In his first attempt for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco's city council, he came in tenth place out of thirty-two candidates. However, he lost, his new-found popularity gave him the name of The Mayor of Castro Street, and put him on the political map. Milk meets with the enthusiastic Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), a gay teenager and former prostitute from Phoenix and eventually mentors him. Cleve Jones found the AIDS Memorial Quilt which could awareness about many people affected by AIDS.

In both 1973 and 1975, Milk loses his bid for the city's Board of Supervisors, but he is an active speaker and his popularity is growing. "My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you," is his pitch directed to the non-gay segments of the population. On the other hand, the film shows him deploying it with mostly gay crowds as well, with a slightly different inflection. He wants to recruit them into the politics of democracy, to persuade them that the stigma and discrimination they are used to enduring quietly and even guiltily can be addressed by voting, by demonstrating, by claiming the share of power that is every citizens birthright and responsibility (Laurier).

Lesbian activist Anne Kronenberg (Alison Pill) takes over as campaign manager from a disappointed Scott. She is leather-wearing, bike-riding, and helping to ease some of the social and political barriers between gay men and lesbians. She works with Milk to then successfully pushes for a ballot initiative, approved by newly-elected Mayor Moscone (Victor Garber), which supervisors by district so that each group could be adequately represented.

James Burns believes that Milk is very similar to the movie The Times of Harvey Milk. There are several reenactments made to look like historical footage and the actors repeat original dialogue from those events word for word. Because this is a biopic some events are exaggerated while others are downplayed. For example, the film exaggerates the Proposition 6 also known as the Briggs Initiative. This was a conservative proposition that was on the California State ballot in 1978, would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools (Bronski Pg. 71 2009). In the end the proposition fails however the film focuses on the subject to show Harvey Milks determination for fighting for what he believes in.

On the other hand, the film acts as a memoir for Harvey Milk when the tape recordings were only made so he could convince his superiors to replace him with a close associate in the event of his death. This seems a bit misleading because Harvey Milk was not trying to write a memoir for himself.

In his third time seeking an elective post, Harvey wins a supervisor's seat in the district that includes The Castro, and Proposition 6 is resoundingly defeated, including in Orange County. colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin), a former police officer and Irish Catholic, is both attracted to and repulsed by the flamboyant gay man, leading the latter to suspect that White is "one of us." Dan White, Milks erstwhile colleague and eventual assassin, haunts the edges of the movie, representing both the banality and the conundrum of evil. Brolin's Dan White, a Vietnam veteran, is played like a frustrated, tormented soul, not an irrational lunatic. Mr. Brolin makes him seem at once pitiable and scary without making him look like a monster or a clown. Motives for Whites crime are suggested in the film, but too neat an accounting of them would distort the awful truth of the story and undermine the power of the movie.

Van Sant has a knack for completely taking the audience by surprise by how he positions his camera and how he edits a scene. One famous shot is the reflection on a metal whistle that had been dropped by a victim of violence against homosexuals. Van Sants use of music is also completely unpredictable and he makes full use of the often-ironic score composed for the film by frequent Tim Burton collaborator Danny Elfman. But Van Sants original use of film style is unobtrusive and it is there to facilitate the telling of the story better rather than drawing attention to itself.

A major component of what makes Milk such a compelling film is the acting. On a purely technical level the combination of skilled casting and makeup has created an ensemble of actors who all bear an uncanny resemblance to the actual people that they play in the film. But it is how the artists perform, rather than how they look, that is what really counts and every single performance is compelling. Sean Penn is incredible as Harvey, as is James Franco as Scott, Harveys long-term partner and campaign manager. The chemistry between the two is extraordinary and they are an entirely convincing onscreen couple (Scott).

There is certainly much in the film that is bewildering and will make you angry, especially considering the recent reductive passing of Proposition 8 in California, but this is ultimately a celebratory story about inspiring people who achieved positive change. It is an important story that deserves the attention that it is getting but the essential point is that it is also an entertaining and well-crafted film.

Milk succeeded in his aim, he made it into politics and became the first homosexual male to hold public office. This fact pointed to two things the first that he achieved his aim of being recognized as being gay, and second his acceptance as a gay individual by being accepted into the public office. Harvey primarily spoke about the high need for persons in the LGBT community to come out. He elaborated that this was significant because if other saw that LGBT people were more prevalent a closed society could be a more open one. If more people were out the LGBT individuals still in the closet could see that there is hope and the word is moving in the right direction. Harvey Milks life changed history his courage still motivates people today; his ideas still teach people today and his hope still inspires people today.

Conclusions

Based on this film analysis it is evident that issues of homosexuality have really come of age from the point when it was illegal in the 70s. the circumstances taking place depict a society that was struggling in those years to deal with issues such as these facing the people and those struggling to fit in where it was awkward to be gay. The film depicting the first gay person to come out shows the struggles they underwent to live as ordinary citizens in the face of persecution and stigma. His coming out as we see defined the way we view these people to some extent and such they like other individuals managed to find the courage to live normally without fear. People could get an understanding of gay person as a result which prompted the events leading to Harvey milk seeking an elective post something people from the gay community were afraid to do because of how the society treated them

The film brings out the fact that being homosexual does not disqualify a person from working in any job and the fact that this should not be a basis for determining an individuals employment status. Fear of being gay seems to have slowed as individuals from this community appears to find courage from the motivating speeches that Harvey talked to the people about. Another important we learn is the fact that people seem to accept gay people as part of the society from the way Harvey milk could succeed in politics and even getting a position on the board. This indicates that gay people too have rights and no one should discriminate them based on their sexuality even if they do not agree with who they are because of this difference. Gay people should live freely and they need acceptance just like the rest of the population.

Works Cited

Bradshaw, Peter. "Film Review: Milk". the Guardian. N.p., 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.

Bronski, Michael, et al. "Milk." (2009): 71-73.

Laurier, Joanne. "Milk, Identity Politics And Gus Van SantS Art - World Socialist Web Site". Wsws.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.

Scott, A. "Sean Penn As A San Francisco Gay Politician Who Became A Potent Symbol In Death". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.