HOLLYWOOD HUES
Time to be gay 

Gus Van Sant’s Milk, based on the life of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, 
is packed with drama and suspense, writes Ervell E. Menezes

DOES the name Harvey Milk ring a bell? Not for us in far away India where the subject of gays in the 1970s was still locked in the closet and their activities scarcely made news fit to print. But it surely did in the United States, and specially in California. Because Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) was a gay rights activist, icon, hero, who changed the lives of thousands of Americans and is the meat and drink of Gus Van Sant’s moving and enlightening film named Milk.

Filmed on location in that up-and-down city of San Francisco from an original screenplay by Dustin Lance Black, this 128-minute thought-provoker is packed with drama, suspense and as this 40-year-old man ("and I’ve done nothing") suddenly finds himself catapulted to fame as the front-runner of the gay movement.

"I know I’m not what you expected, but I left my high heels behind," Milk tells his early audience. He does not have glaring gay tendencies but spurred on by the hostile reaction of the locals in setting up ‘Castro Camera’ in working San Francisco, he and his lover Scott Smith (James Franco) get other gays drawn to them like a magnet. Catholic singer Anita Bryant is his first major adversary.

There are others like Senator John Briggs and later politician Dan White (Josh Brolin). Milk has his supporters in Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsh) and Jack Lira (Diego Lira) who frequent ‘Castro Camera’. How the movement takes off is graphically captured by director Gus Van Sant and there is a good mix of outdoor scenes (beautifully shot by cinematographer Harris Savidas) and interiors, tempestuous rallies and heated discussions. The gay parade of 1978 is probably the highlight of the outdoors. But all this time, his lover Scott gets into emotional problems and is visibly disturbed, may be because of Milk’s growing involvement in the movement.

Can Milk make a dent in the Establishment, who say that he is harming the foundations of family life. This Milk counters by quoting the Constitution and making a case for equality for all, young and old, straight and gay alike and soon his numbers increase. He is elected Supervisor of a district but it is another Supervisor Dan White who becomes his nemeses.

The second half is more gripping because it involves more action but at no time does the subject slip from Van San’s grasp. Sean Penn, who has won the Best Actor Oscar for the film, is just brilliant capturing a whole gamut of emotions, but also underplaying them. Josh Brolin lends adequate support and there are good cameos by Emile Hirsch and James Franco in this no-holds barred, bold but far from exhibitionistic depiction of the gaydom. You don’t have to be a gay to see this outstanding movie.

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