East Carolinian

Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: staff photo

If you weren't familiar with the name Harvey Milk prior to Gus Van Sant's new film about his life, consider yourself caught up. The gay-rights activist is likely to be mentioned with increasing frequency over the next few months, if not in relation to California's recent vote to reverse its gay marriage law, then in the same breath as the Oscars, as buzz for potential 2008 Academy Award nominations grows louder.

Though Milk encapsulates only the last eight years of its namesake's life, it's implied that those were the eight that mattered most.

The film begins with a flashback to 1970 New York City on the evening of Milk's 40th birthday--the moment he resigns to, in his words, "make a change." From there, it follows Milk (who is uncannily channeled by Sean Penn) as he relocates to San Francisco's gay-friendly Eureka Valley/Castro neighborhood, opens a camera shop for kicks and, true to his words, starts making changes. What unfolds is a moving, well-edited retelling of how the first openly gay man won elective office in the United States and, within his first year in office, was literally shot down.

The film opened in limited release Nov. 26, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Milk's and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone's double-assassinations by their colleague, Dan White.

For many gay-rights activists who supported and campaigned with him in the 70s, Milk triggers a bittersweet nostalgia. Cleve Jones, who as a youth was approached by Milk to campaign with him, explains that because the film was shot on location in the Castro district, longtime residents were very much involved; many locals who knew Milk were used as extras in re-creations of events that took place during his political career.

"Harvey Milk's camera store was re-created in the actual location," said Jones, who served as the film's historical consultant, "and all night long [film security guards] would see people coming up--especially older people--who would peer in the window and begin to weep. For me, at that time, it was an incredibly romantic, exciting adventure. And all of us who were a part of it knew that this had never happened before."

Emile Hirsch, who also starred in the Sean Penn-directed Into the Wild in 2007, portrays Jones in the film. Though Hirsch and Penn have an easy rapport on screen just as Jones and Milk did in real life, Penn's interpretation of Milk's boyish yet powerful personality stands alone.

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