Sean Penn has always been an acquired taste for some. There is no denying he is a great actor, but he can come across as being far too intense for some. Well at last he is given a role that not only shows his acting skills, but is without doubt his most rounded and his most human.
Harvey Milk has always had to deal with prejudice, and at the beginning of the 70s, he heads off with his boyfriend, to San Francisco to start afresh. Opening a camera store on Castro Street, it becomes clear that Milk is a figure that the homosexual community looks to for answers as to why they are being beaten by the police and treated with disrespect by the heterosexuals. Milk decides to run for office, and after several failed attempts, finally became the first openly gay officer in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where his work really begins.
Based on the real life story of Harvey Milk, Gus Van Sant's passionate film mixes archive footage of the time with a strong cast acting their socks off, but none get close to Penn's stellar performance. The film is not only a fine work of art but an important examination of a man determined to change the way people saw what was regarded almost as an alien race.
The film is slightly overlong, but that shouldn't put you off. What you get is an amazingly positive film and one of Van Sant's most upbeat films in year, and if you only go to see Penn, it is well worth it.
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