MILK
“I’m Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you.”
Cries out Sean Penn in his role as Harvey Milk in the movie titled Milk, which won him the Oscar for best actor in a leading role at the 81st annual Oscar Awards. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA in 1977.
Milk’s story has been captured on film based on the tapes he left behind anticipating his assassination. Milk moves from New York to San Francisco in 1972 and becomes a businessman-- a camera store owner-- to be precise. In an effort to get more people to come to his store, he rounds up the gay community. What begins as an attempt to garner more business soon turns into political activism. He sets his heart on getting equal rights for his fraternity and stands for election. With his gay partner by his side, he runs his campaign two successive years, but fails to get elected. While his partner and campaign manager, Scott, leaves him since he is tired of Milk’s fight to get elected, Milk gets a new campaign manager and is finally elected to the post of supervisor in 1977.
The film then traces his political relationship with staunch social conservative, Dan White, who shoots to death Milk as well as the city's mayor, George Moscone, blaming his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to withdraw his resignation from the board. Dan White is sentenced to prison for five years and then commits suicide two years after his release.
This true-life story of Harvey Milk encourages the gay community to be honest with themselves and their family and urges them to come out of the closet. Those with not much insight into the gay community can get a better understanding of their history of persecution, which leads many of them to commit suicide. It is a brave story that needed to be told and no better choice of leading man could have been made than Sean Penn for his brilliant portrayal of Harvey Milk.
Accepting the Oscar he said, “Thank you. Thank you. You commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns.” On a more serious note, he leaves a message for the audience, “I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support.”
On a lighter note, Robert De Niro who introduced him as one of the nominees for best actor jokingly wonders aloud how Sean ever got straight roles all these years. And it’s a sentiment that you will echo once you see his sensitive, brilliant performance.
“I’m Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you.”
Cries out Sean Penn in his role as Harvey Milk in the movie titled Milk, which won him the Oscar for best actor in a leading role at the 81st annual Oscar Awards. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA in 1977.
Milk’s story has been captured on film based on the tapes he left behind anticipating his assassination. Milk moves from New York to San Francisco in 1972 and becomes a businessman-- a camera store owner-- to be precise. In an effort to get more people to come to his store, he rounds up the gay community. What begins as an attempt to garner more business soon turns into political activism. He sets his heart on getting equal rights for his fraternity and stands for election. With his gay partner by his side, he runs his campaign two successive years, but fails to get elected. While his partner and campaign manager, Scott, leaves him since he is tired of Milk’s fight to get elected, Milk gets a new campaign manager and is finally elected to the post of supervisor in 1977.
The film then traces his political relationship with staunch social conservative, Dan White, who shoots to death Milk as well as the city's mayor, George Moscone, blaming his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to withdraw his resignation from the board. Dan White is sentenced to prison for five years and then commits suicide two years after his release.
This true-life story of Harvey Milk encourages the gay community to be honest with themselves and their family and urges them to come out of the closet. Those with not much insight into the gay community can get a better understanding of their history of persecution, which leads many of them to commit suicide. It is a brave story that needed to be told and no better choice of leading man could have been made than Sean Penn for his brilliant portrayal of Harvey Milk.
Accepting the Oscar he said, “Thank you. Thank you. You commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns.” On a more serious note, he leaves a message for the audience, “I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support.”
On a lighter note, Robert De Niro who introduced him as one of the nominees for best actor jokingly wonders aloud how Sean ever got straight roles all these years. And it’s a sentiment that you will echo once you see his sensitive, brilliant performance.
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