I've seen the documentary "Times of Harvey Milk" a few times (it's brilliant) and was curious to see how the biopic fared.

First, if Sean Penn hadn't won the Oscar for Best Actor for this it would have been as criminal as when Leonardo DiCaprio was passed for an Oscar for his work in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" (something that still pisses me off, btw).

There was absolutely no Sean Penn to be seen, he was purely Harvey Milk. James Franco is my newest boyfriend, and freaking Josh Brolin gave me the creeps because he was dead on as Dan White. To see them acting out footage I'd seen in the documentary on screen was incredible because it was so seamless and perfect and simply there as part of the story. Some of the footage from the documentary was actually placed in the movie as well, a reminder that this story is real.

The documentary of course covered the silent march down to City Hall by 30,000 San Franciscans after Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone were murdered, and that moment did, indeed, make me choke up, but when I saw it in the film, I was so completely, emotionally owned by that point that I just sobbed.

I watched all the DVD extras and that was fantastic. Cleve Jones served as a Historian, for example, and said something that really struck me. He said, to paraphrase because I don't have perfect memory, that Harvey Milk was just a man. His love life was a mess, he died penniless, but he changed the world. Nearly every person who worked with Harvey Milk and was interviewed in the Extras expressed a hope that young people would see the film, learn about Harvey, and Act. One practically begged that people vote.

Milk did change the world. There's so much more to be done, of course. Milk helped to defeat Proposition 6 in the late 70's, but Proposition 8 made it through just a year ago. I think he would have seen that defeat, wept and raged, then set his jaw and went back to work.

Ordinary people doing the right thing to make life more open, better, and safer not only for their small group, but for all people.



So, yeah. Watch the movie if you've not done so yet.

This might not suck!!!!

Watchmen Trailer!

(thanks to azewewish for heads-up)

Oh my squee!