I'm still not sure what a city supervisor actually does

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Harvey Milk is described as the first openly gay person elected to major political office in the US. This film is the story of his political life, from his move to San Francisco to his eventual assassination. Based on tapes he recorded, as a means of telling his story in the event of an assassination, as well as an earlier film and the memories of his friends and associates, this film feels very authentic.

The director, Gus Van Sant, clearly went to a lot of lengths to get accuracy; for example, on moving to San Francisco, Milk and his lover opened a camera shop. The scenes in that shop were filmed in the actual premises. Several of the key players in the film were involved in shooting, too, either just being on set (for example, in one scene a baby is baptised, and that baby, now in his early thirties, attended the filming of that scene), helping with their feelings about Milk, or taking cameo roles. Similarly, looking at photos of the real characters, the actors were chosen and made-up to be very, very close in looks - I had to look twice at one photo of Harvey Milk because I wasn't sure whether it was real or a shot from the film.

There is some very good acting in the film, as well. Sean Penn won a well deserved Oscar for the title role, but the supporting cast were also excellent; in fact, it's impossible for me to pick out a name, they were all so good, so real.

This film felt like a documentary. It was quite dry, very unemotional. It didn't set out to convert, and it wouldn't succeed - if you don't believe that all men are created equal at the start of the film, you won't by the end. There were various other points that I remain unconvinced by (for example, Milk says at one stage 'privacy is the enemy of freedom'). It's not out to recruit you, despite the catchphrase "My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you!" What it will do is tell, quite baldly, a piece of history, and that it does very well.

Comments

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

Just FYI - the Board of Supervisors is SF's equivalent of a City Council.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Thankyou!

That would have been my guess, but I keep seeing it referred to as 'major political office', which doesn't sound like city council to me :)

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

San Francisco is an integrated city-county, so it's reasonably major. Something like a member of the London Assembly.