This is the must-see film for December 2008 -- with Sean Penn portraying the legendary gay-rights icon Harvey Milk.
With the recent passage of California's discriminatory anti marriage Proposition 8, the timing -- for a movie designed to inspire a surge in the fight for civil rights in the LGBT community -- couldn't be better.
In These Times: The first major Hollywood film portraying a gay historic figure, Milk pushes gays to come out and fight for equal rights:
Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in a major U.S. city, was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. But because of fear, he didn’t come out of the closet until he was in his 40s. His public life as a gay leader lasted only five years, when he and Mayor George Moscone were gunned down inside City Hall on Nov. 27, 1978.
Now, 30 years after his death, Milk’s life is on the big screen. In the first time a major Hollywood film has portrayed a gay historic figure as the central hero, Milk, starring Sean Penn in the title role, hits theaters nationwide on Dec. 5. . . The other performances are nearly as good. Josh Brolin as White, Emile Hirsch as gay activist Cleve Jones and Diego Luna as Milk’s doomed lover, Jack Lira, are particularly notable. There should be no shortage of Oscar nominations for this film, with (director Gus) Van Sant and Penn leading the list.
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