Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Monday, January 19, 2009

Milk...

Stu and I saw Milk on Saturday. Sean Penn was excellent. It didn't really tell us much more than we knew already from documentary films like The Times Of Harvey Milk but it was so good to see the real events portrayed as a drama. All the key scenes have been recreated but the story has been made more vivid, sadder even and ultimately more inspiring. Milk was an imperfect man, sure, but then aren't all good leaders? They need that spark of ambition, that desire to do good and the clearness of sight to see an injustice.

Milk was a very sexual man in real life of course. And that being the 1970s there was lots of it around. I sometimes wonder how much that influenced his political drive. He really only came out of himself sexually when he turned forty, moved to San Francisco and grew his hair. With this new liberty came the discovery of his political side. This made him realise what the emerging gay community had to offer the out gay man and the economic power it could wield to protect itself. A politician was born. The first and perhaps best proof that a gay man could be himself and succeed. Albeit on the 4th time of trying!

Go see.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:26 am

    Hey this film is good but it fails in getting to grips with who the man actually was. How could it not talk about the fact 3 of his boyfriends committed suicide when he was going out with them - that had to have had an effect on his life. And I learnt loads about his politics but did not feel like I got to know him as a person. The film skips over events. In the awards season The Wrestler is a better performance really but Milk has its merits ;) But i cant help feeling like they wanted to pander to audiences rather than portray a full portrait of a man (warts and all).

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  2. Gus Van Sant is saying that he had worked on various other treatments but I guess Hollywood needs to turn a buck so the studio went for the version with the broadest appeal. At least it means more people will see it :)

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  3. Anonymous9:31 am

    Do you think? I dont think more people will as the film has not done that well in america. But i like your optimism - and in these times that is always important.

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  4. And James Franco... gulp!

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  5. Anonymous7:19 pm

    I know it's a dream but when will a gay actor be able to play a gay leading man in a big budget movie. I mean, America's finally got a black president. Surely it's not too much to ask... I could ramble on...
    But to cut a long story short, I'm just fucked off with watching straight men play gay men
    (He said, as he enjoyed season 4 of Queer As Folk. Sometimes, you just can't win!)

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  6. Can we call Ian McKellen a leading man? Perhaps, at 69, not a heart throb exactly but certainly a big box office draw. And he's played gay. But admittedly not in his blockbusters. Only things like Gods and Monsters really.

    As for Rupert Everett... it seems to *only* play gay these days. :)

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