Tuesday, January 06, 2009

MILK

Wow. That's all. Wow. This movie, and we all know the ending, was great. A must see for gays, and a bigger must see for non-gays.
"My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you..." What a service this man did. I really, really liked this movie. Were the 'sexy 70's' whitewashed? Sure, to a degree, but the message in the movie is loud and clear. VISIBILITY. Did you read that? VISIBILITY. I was moved to tears several times in this movie, and none of them have to do with Harvey Milk's demise. It was great to see functioning, flourishing gay couples, who loved openly and honestly through poverty, gay ghettos, bathhouses, drugs, bashings & legislative hate. And none of these things stopped these relationships from being.
"No more pot & bathhouses for me and my honey..." Harvey Milk stopped his and his boyfriends average gay Joe life to run for office. I had no idea he lost his first few runs at office. This man Milk, did what I always felt I should have/could have done. He won an office and began making a difference in his own people's life. Today one could never admit that he was a pot smoking, sex club attending, porn reading gay. Could I admit that today? Of course not, I'm not into porn really. But seriously, in today's day and age, the Christian Reich would have a field day digging up dirt on a man like Milk. A good hearted man like Milk.
Sean Penn. There I wrote it right there. Sean Penn was fascinating to watch. His performance was stellar. He had the gay nuances down pat, his speech pattern was totally changed. I'm so proud of his portrayal of a gay man. Usually I hate when straights get the good gay roles and the real gays get to play the nut jobs, zany best friends or psychos. But Sean Penn ruled. I honestly can't think of anyone else who could have played this role. I don't know if Sean will win an Academy Award for this, but damn - he sure should be nominated.
I really liked this movie and urge all of you to see it. And on the big screen. The movie speaks to not only the gay community, but the the straight community as well. A MUST see movie.
Watch & learn kids, watch and learn...

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

See I told you so

8:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And did you notice that the gay characters were played by straight actors and the straight characters were played by gay ones?

8:57 PM  
Blogger Jim the NYC Foodie said...

Loved it, loved him

8:16 PM  
Blogger Todd HellsKitchen said...

Now you know what those of us (who are your father's age) lived through! LOL!

4:18 PM  
Blogger BILLOFTHEDESERT said...

Remarkable how a film with this production history could emerge and still stay pretty close to the way I remember things, what some people would call "history." I think we can safely recommend this to the young ones and not worry too much. All those tears are evidence of the loss we feel for those years. I bawled from beginning to end. Don't miss this on the big screen. The candles. I think that must have been archival footage. You probably want all the nuance you can get.

10:29 PM  

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