Milk is a great biopic. It hits the important bullet points of Harvey Milk's life and explains his impact clearly, but with a relatable human story too.
Review: Milk
Opening with Harvey narrating into a tape recorder might seem easy, but it also immediately distinguishes his private side with the flashbacks of his appearances before very different audiences too.
You see exactly how Milk gradually affected change, beginning by appealing to teamster's needs to build up nongay support. He uses a fluffy dog poo initiative as a rider on a much more important bill. That's using politics for good and not evil.
You see how he engages people in public settings, and also how he makes a difference on as personal level, for that one person who just needed to know it's okay to be gay. It's not just broad strokes.
The style of it all, the photo montages, the phone tree multi split screen, that all shows you how some of the political machinations work. It's a little artsy but certainly not avant-garde. Everyone knows those techniques so they get the point.
The guys in this movie really kiss, and do it lovingly. That's always great to see.
Hopefully this movie humanizes the issue for the frightened bigots still out there. Milk disproves their arguments with class, and even fairs as well as possible in their hostile court. There's no relatable character in the anti-gay movement, but I don't think there's such a thing as a reasonable homophobe anyway so I can't imagine one existed.
Milk
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