Milk

Viewer Rating:Keith has rated Milk rating: 1 Star

Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected in the US. The film should have been called 'Campaign' because that's all it was about. Harvey Milk's character, his life, his past, his weaknesses etc were never explored, he was portrayed as this kindly human who exceeds anyone's version of a saint. I would of liked to see a more human side to Milk, all I learnt about him leaving the cinema was that he was 'Gay and Proud'. James Franco's character was the only one who seemed not affected with being gay. All the other homosexual characters struggled with their orientation. Franco managed to protray a gay man without acting camp. In many other bio-pics, (i.e Walk the Line) we learn about the life of the individual, how there mind worked, their flaws, Milk managed to just curdle, and only tell a biased story of an unflawed man. I would have liked Sean Penn to take the mask off Harvey Milk. We see throughout, Harvey record himself making a speech about his campaign in the case of his assasination (yet, it seemed more like a murder to me). We never learn where this tape goes, when it's played, who its for, what happened once Harvey died...and that goes back to my earlier point, the film is just about a Gay Rights Campaign centred around Harvey Milk, and lasting for what seemed a lifetime (2 and a half hours) Also, there were many unnecessary sex scenes that didn't illustrate love, one scene infact shows two young men engoy each other in a closet, and other of Sean Penn slapping another mans bum, it all seemed a bit distasteful in my opinipn, wether these characters were gay or straight these scenes were just 'put there' for no purpose. To me, Milk should be taken off the shelves because its gone sour!

Review published on the 07 February 2009 17:00