What a momentous experience to see the bio of our nation's first out gay politician, Harvey Milk, so elegantly brought to life—a mainstream movie starring Hollywood A-listers. I have never had more respect for Sean Penn... he nailed the man with utter precision: the mannerisms, charisma, vocal patterns and even his '70's-style physical persona.
I've waited two decades to see the life of Milk reach theaters. I discovered Oscar-winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" in the late 1980s, and, uh, milked my fascination by devouring the book "The Mayor of Castro Street." He is among few in his time to carry the flag high, in fact, pinning his very life on being out, loud and proud. I saw the movie at Brooklyn's Cobble Hill Cinema, taking a nice, leisurely mile-long Sunday (cold & windy) stroll through the nabe to get there.
Milk did much to propel national civil rights, making it an awful lot easier for me to come out in 1985. Now, 20+ years later, much of his legacy is sadly lost in time, amid the greater ease of being openly gay today—thanks to the Internet and other out public figures, TV shows and movies that have helped erase the stigma of being "alone" in small towns (Lynchburg, Va., for instance). Milk is a pivotal figure in U.S. history and I am thankful for his audacity. I have never been prouder to be an out gay man.
How about that scene with the kid in the wheelchair and Penn tells him to just leave? Beautiful. The messages and themes that not just the movie represented, but Harvey Milk himself are inspiring to everyone regardless of sexual orientation, color, religion, etc. So glad you got to see it.
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