Milk (2008)
Groundswell Productions

Description

In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. From senior citizens to union workers, Harvey Milk changed the very nature of what it means to be a fighter for human rights and became, before his untimely death in 1978, a hero for all Americans.

Tags

1970s, California, Oscar winner, USA

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

It brings Harvey to life for a new generation instead of setting him in stone. Penn makes Harvey so vivid and spoiling to be heard that you want to introduce him to people.
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10 TV Guide | Perry Seibert

Dustin Lance Black's screenplay never holds Harvey Milk up as something bigger than he was -- he's never made into a martyr or a saint. He's a heroic, but complicated, three-dimensional person, and Sean Penn rises to the occasion with an empathetic performance that never rings false.
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10 New York Times | A. O. Scott

"Milk" is a fascinating, multi-layered history lesson. In its scale and visual variety it feels almost like a calmed-down Oliver Stone movie, stripped of hyperbole and Oedipal melodrama.
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10 Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

Harvey Milk was no doubt a great man, but Van Sant gratifyingly avoids making him a Great Man. Instead, he shifts his focus throughout "Milk" from Harvey himself to the movement he so ingeniously led.
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10 Time | Richard Corliss

The script by Dustin Lance Black, who worked on HBO's polygamy series Big Love, is all about process: how Harvey Milk changed things.
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9.2 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

As a study of a political moment, Milk is memorable. As a story of Milk's personal life, however, it leaves something to be desired.
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8.8 ReelViews | James Berardinelli

By imbuing the characters with humanity and personality, Van Sant avoids the obvious traps of making Milk a sycophantic tribute or a slickly made piece of propaganda. The story sticks as close to the facts as any bio-pic I can think of.
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8.0 Newsweek | David Ansen

Penn's metamorphosis into Harvey is miraculous, all the more so because there's nothing showy about it, even though Milk had a showman's flair.
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8.0 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

There were plenty of times during "Milk" when I stopped asking myself questions about Penn and the cinematography and the re-creations of San Francisco moments and locations and just got swept up into the enigmas of Harvey Milk's life and career and politics.
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8.0 Variety | Todd McCarthy

But while “Milk” is unquestionably marked by many mandatory scenes - the electioneering, outrage at conservative opposition, tension between domestic and public life, insider politicking, public demonstrations, et al. - the quality of the writing, acting and directing generally invests them with the feel of real life and credible personal interchange.
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