MILK at Truthdig

by Andre Soares | | 1 Comment     

 

Sean Penn in Milk by Gus Van Sant

Sheerly Avni’s "Get Milk" at Truthdig:

"First things first. Gus Van Sant’s Milk is a movie to be thankful for. Go see it, tonight if you can, and in a crowded theater.  See it because as a grass-roots activist and California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk led and won the fight to defeat Proposition 6, an anti-gay measure as bigoted in its own time as Proposition 8 is today. Or because it features one of our best actors at his least actorly—in his most winning performance since Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Or because on Nov. 4, civil rights took a step back on the very day it leaped forward—though Milk would have known how to use that defeat to galvanize a movement. See it because Milk is a legend in his community and in San Francisco but he hasn’t yet been written into the history of American civil rights at large, where he belongs."

***

Larry Gross‘ "Hollywood’s Closet Still Closed for Business"
at Truthdig:

"Besides marking a historic anniversary, this opening concludes a decades-long effort to bring the story of Harvey Milk’s life and death to the Hollywood screen (a documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, was made, and won an Oscar in 1985). As they launched the project that led to the making of Milk, after many prior attempts by many writers and directors had failed, Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black hoped to achieve another cinematic milestone by casting openly gay actors as the gay and lesbian people in the forefront of the story, especially in the key role of Harvey Milk. In this they did not succeed, and this tells us something important about the position of gay people in Hollywood today."

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Starring Sean Penn, James Franco, Diego Luna, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch, Milk opens today, almost thirty years to the day after the assassination (Nov. 27, 1978) of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors member.

Personally, I don’t think it’d have been important to have an openly gay performer in the role of Harvey Milk. Politically incorrect, perhaps, but in my view, the best actor — the one who could best recreate Milk — is the one who should have been cast in the role, regardless of sexual orientation. I haven’t seen the movie, yet, so I don’t know if Sean Penn fits the bill, though the actor has been receiving across-the-board praise. (However, Avni’s mention of Fast Times at Ridgemont High makes me wary as I find it one of the worst movies I’ve ever suffered through and Penn’s performance in it one of the most grating I’ve ever seen.)

I should add that Avni recommends that Milk audiences check out The Times of Harvey Milk as well, for she sees Van Sant’s biopic and Rob Epstein’s documentary as sort of companion pieces. Perhaps even more importantly, she adds that if you bring a "cute stranger" home for the double bill (and more?) Milk would have approved.

Well, if you do go for it, enjoy.

 

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by Andre Soares | November 26, 2008 | Filed Under American Cinema / Hollywood, Gay & Lesbian 

Comments

One Response to “MILK at Truthdig”

  1. cumon on December 1st, 2008 8:14 pm

    omigawd! Of course they should have given the de-lactic role of MILK to a gay actor. Gay characters should be played by gay (not gay-for-pay) men. Straight (not straight-for-pay — and there are lots and lots of those) should play straight.

    Bisexuals shouldn’t play anything. Or perhaps they should play everything.

    And no guys playing women either, like Divine did. It just don’t work.

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