| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Sean Penn | ... | Harvey Milk | |
| Emile Hirsch | ... | Cleve Jones | |
| Josh Brolin | ... | Dan White | |
| Diego Luna | ... | Jack Lira | |
| James Franco | ... | Scott Smith | |
| Alison Pill | ... | Anne Kronenberg | |
| Victor Garber | ... | Mayor Moscone | |
| Denis O'Hare | ... | John Briggs | |
| Joseph Cross | ... | Dick Pabich | |
| Stephen Spinella | ... | Rick Stokes | |
| Lucas Grabeel | ... | Danny Nicoletta | |
| Brandon Boyce | ... | Jim Rivaldo | |
| Howard Rosenman | ... | David Goodstein (as Zvi Howard Rosenman) | |
| Kelvin Yu | ... | Michael Wong | |
| Jeff Koons | ... | Art Agnos | |
Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
I saw this last night at the Portland premiere with Gus Van Sant and James Franco among others. This is a powerful work and, in my opinion, Gus Van Sant has taken a big step towards the mainstream in his artistic direction. To me, the person who is by no means a movie expert, it seems that this movie had a much faster, accessible pace than his other movies. There were no long-shots or minutes at a time without dialog, etc.
I've really never thought much of Sean Penn before, but, with this role, I expect him to sweep up the awards. Everyone was great in their parts, but he did such an excellent job in portraying the Harvey Milk that I have seen before in clips and documentaries. They did not make out Milk to be a choir-boy, which was one thing I was afraid was going to happen. This story seems long overdue in it's telling, but so completely relevant to today's news.
I expect, as the movie hits theaters, this will cause quite a stir, with both sides using it as fodder in their fight. I expect the ratings will reflect this as there are already people giving it 0's who obviously did not attend the premiere. I don't think it deserves a 10 either, but is much, much closer to that end. Looked at objectively, it is a sometimes tearful, sometimes funny movie that was put together masterfully