Harvey Milk Deserved A Better Film Than Van Sant's Low-fat Biopic
Cross-posted from Daily Kos
Harvey Milk deserved a better film than this.
Director Gus Van Sant's hagiography remains true to the facts of its subject's life while backing away from invoking the full-on, living color injustice, violence, passion, nerve, and sheer scruffy grassroots rage that fueled Milk and the emerging post-Stonewall Gay liberation movement.
Not that it doesn't try, kind of. All the right things happen, plot-wise -- a formerly closeted Milk starts a new, out life in 70s-era San Francisco with his hunky younger boyfriend; the hostility of neighboring Irish businesses in the Castro district where they settle, plus the alternating bullying and neglect of the SF Police Department, stir Milk to run for office. There's the requisite hate crime scene, plus allusions to gay teens being forced out of their homes and into the streets of the nearest big city by homophobic parents and classmates.
Yet Milk is curiously placid and sterile, even prudish. We never see more than a tablespoon of blood at a time. The 10-second sex scene we only partially see in a dark bedroom between Milk and a boyfriend is all slap and tickle. And every character, including the runaway teen Milk befriends -- Cleve Jones, who survives by turning tricks on the notoriously seedy and dangerous (though never depicted) Polk Street -- looks freshly showered and dressed by the Gap.
Even violent scenes are gloved. Though the camera pulls back to a wide screen view when gays riot against police randomly raiding bars along Castro Street and beating patrons, we never see a cop actually strike anyone, just a lot of carefully choreographed wrestling followed by a scene of Milk dabbing at a small patch of blood on his boyfriend's head. Later, when Milk directs Jones to gather a mob and march them to City Hall after one of Anita Bryant's victories (so Milk can show up to act as peacemaker in front of the press), we get another distant shot of a faceless, strangely lethargic crowd. Even the candlelight march after Milk's assassination seems less mournful than bovine. (Van Sant ends his film before the White Night riots, where queers burned police cars after the lenient sentencing of Milk's murderer.)
Bitch, I've seen queers more fired up when Bed Bath & Beyond runs out of sale items. Where's the passion?
Was Van Sant afraid that audiences wouldn't be sympathetic if 70s-era gay activists were people who suffered, swore, fought back, and fucked like they meant it? If the street kids actually looked like dirty, starving, broke-ass teen hustlers?
Gay history -- unedited -- is ugly, angry, and violent. It's police dragging us out of cellar bars and down to the station to gang fuck the femmes and face-rape the butches, queens, and trannies. It's military witch hunts; suicides and "experimental therapies," from lobotomies and electro-shock to Christian boot camps. It's Stonewall, where we showered raiding police with bottles, locked them in the bar, and set it afire. It's ACT UP and chaining ourselves to pharmaceutical companies' fences to protest AIDS drugs price gouging.
Van Sant's gentrified Milk reflects gay activism's increasingly apologetic tone. We don't always need to be burning police cars to prove our cred, but we shouldn't be inviting homophobes to the table, then singing their praises if they don't spit on us. It's not about hugging Rick Warren and being satisfied that at least he's being nice about denying us our civil rights. Politeness has become homophobia's most popular mask.
Ultimately I'm glad that even this pasteurized, homogenized Milk is out there. Audiences need to see the film's opening sequence -- silent archival footage depicting police bar raids from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, with men shielding their faces from the cameras even as they are shoved into vans, handcuffed, or held in waiting rooms. I want fresh salt poured on the wounds of Proposition 8 so that queers will stop apologizing for being angry with the Mormon and Catholic Church, and for boycotting supporters. I want fresh rage directed at Barack Obama for thinking that including a gay marching band in his inauguration proceedings compensates for his having invited a notorious homophobe and anti-Semite to give the invocation.
But I'm not sure that this low-fat film will really help audience get Milk. And I'm sorry that Van Sant didn't think we could handle the truth.
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It's not that you don't have a point.
But I think you are drastically underestimating just how sheltered most Americans are.
If this movie had shown the gritty reality...
I would be all for ANOTHER Milk film being released, that was more indie and gritty.
But the sad fact of the matter is that MILK as it exists now is about as much reality as most Americans can handle. It's even MORE reality than some can handle. This movie was made for a wide audience, not just for the gay community. If not distributed in this watered down form, Harvey Milk's story would not have been seen by many who didn't know it already. This version educates a wider audience, maybe not with the whole truth, but with as much truth as they can deal with.
Is there a "good" Gus Van Sant movie? This guy is a hack, half-step (maybe) better than that Verhoeven guy who made that awful Elizabeth Berkeley movie and "Starship Troopers"
My group of gay friends in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York have all seen "Milk", some two or three times, and universally this film was loved, really loved. I was moved to tears by the end of this film. It was just what I needed to see. I think Gus Vant Sant made a wonderful film and I'm glad the New York Film Critics Circle awarded it Best Picture. Sean Penn is amazing and I'll be rooting for him to win the big awards.
However, you have a wonderful idea for another film about Harvey Milk and the gay rights movement.
Why not more than one film.
In recent years there have three films on Queen Elizabeth. Truman Capote had two different depictions. Richard Nixon had different depictions. Even Joey Buttafucco had three televisions made about his sorded story at the same time.
Instead of criticizing Gus Vant Sant, who I believe did a wonderful job with the movie he made telling the story he told, get right to work on creating it. I am ready to see exactly that movie you described. Harvey Milk's story is big enough for more than one film.
good idea!
Interesting points. I went into the film with very high hopes, as I've seen the documentary "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk" a few times and was deeply moved each time (I'm straight, BTW).
As a staunch proponent of gay rights, and as someone with many conservative friends and family, I actually felt the movie came on a bit TOO STRONG in promoting the infamous '70's Castro lifestyle. If it came on any stronger regarding the drug use and hypersexuality of the time -- then in my opinion any hope of winning "mainstream America" over to the cause would have been lost.
In a nutshell -- I felt the movie was a bit too EVANGELICAL. And I use that term intentionally. Evangelicals too often fall into the trap of making films and other media that is, usually, "preaching to the choir." They enjoy watching them, but they gain zero converts. I fear "Milk" fell into the same trap.
My opinion is that Harvey and his story are so powerful, that if it was told with more emphasis on the basic humanity that we all share, and scaling back on the infamous fringe aspects of the Castro community -- converts galore could have been won.
Regardless, I'm glad the movie was made anyway. Bit by bit, gay bigotry is being chipped away...Ble
I wonder if the film you ask for would mean more to the straight community than what MILK served up. Your angst is not yet theirs, but its expression in "your" film may well have lessened its mass appeal (such as it achieved). Don't forget that it was a "mass" audience the producers were after. their guiding principle being that money rather than total verisimilitude, is what ultimately talks.
Maybe you should make the movie you would like to see...
My first viewing of "Milk" on opening day at The Castro Theater was riveting. I cried through most of the film.
Taking it in a 2nd time and my assessment is closer to the opening comments in this blog. I am a native and was here for all of these events.
What is glaring and still is today, is the lack of ethnic diversity within the gay community. And that saddens me and cannot be denied. Racial prejudice is alive and well within the gay community unless you conform.
But please, let's back off of criticizing Obama at this point. We have never had a Presidential Candidate mention equality for Gays as often as he has. For as much as many in the gay community think that Hillary would be better for the community, I can hardly remember her being outfront on our issues.
I don't remember Hillary getting ex gays to stump for her. I don't remember her saying that "uniting" the country was more important than standing up to homophobia. She NEVER would have invited Warren. I doubt she would have even gone to his church.
I think we could tolerate Obama moving slowly on the issues if he just didn't take the time to slap us in the face every few months or so. I can understand if he doesn't get a chance to pass any of our legislation, but does he have to make nice to people who get off on the idea that I'm going to spend an eternity in Hell?
No, I did support Obama, I couldn't. I still can't. My sexuality is who I am, it's who we all are. I have too many scars (both mental and physical) to think any different. If he was truly a friend of gays, then he would realize why his actions are so offensive, and would act differently. He just needs to stop offending us. I don't care if he ignores us, but I'm tired of getting gut punched. Reminds me too much of highschool and being told that all the harrassment I recieved was my fault for being out.
I saw Milk over the weekend and I thought it captured the atmosphere of the times (before AIDS), and depicted Harvey Milk pretty much the way he was. I understand Nancy's point that gay history is "is ugly, angry, and violent," and continues to be to this very day; however, Milk is a far better film than Van Sant's Elephant.
I was very moved by the film, particularly now in the aftermath of Rick Warren's anointing by Obama, the passage of Prop 8, and the decision by Congressional Democrats to put on the back burner the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
I love it...the raw truth. MLK, Jr. wrote "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? "
warren and his ilk are extremists for hate and the preservation of injustice. We must fight their extremism by being extremists for love and the extension of justice.
well, ms goldstein, i suggest you get right on that then.
I have really great, straight, Republican neighbors (mid-sixties couple). My pseudo husband and I took them out in New Orleans this weekend for a half straight/half gay evening of nightlife. They were absolutely unprepared for the second half of the experience.
I have come to the conclusion that the only people on the right that we can possibly move to "our" column are the people who we live with and work with and see every day - not the folks who don't believe in basic rights because the preacher said it "ain't what Jesus would do." The vast majority of straight people are generally not interested in becoming students of gay culture, history, or community anyway.
They see us as being the "everyday" guys next door who go boating and play darts with them and their grandkids. They support us because we're "like them" in their minds. They don't want to see gay people burning stuff or being particularly passionate in bed - just like I don't want to see polygamists, eskimos, or snake-handlers doing any of the aforementioned.
The people who are open to equality feel that we are like them. That's what virtually all struggles for equality come down to for minorities. We're not going to have the courts on our side for the forseeable future, so it comes down to making in-roads with anybody we can sway - while being positive about it.
look at current events. from the arkansas ban to prop 8 to rick warren- this nation can't handle the truth. Under the current climate, i am pleasantly surprised by Milk manage to accomplish what it did.
Wow, that was raw! Not very Melissa Etheridge like of you.
What do you believe is the difference b/t your views of Gay activism and Melissa Etherridge's?
Just a guess on my part. I doubt Ethridge lived through the type of struggles gay people endured that brought Milk to the stage. Today, there are some neighborhoods in some cities where gays can live with impunity. There are large swaths of America where lynching queers isn't seen as a bad thing and sections in every city where the same opinion holds. Just as there are young people , today, who cannot imagine an America where millions were denied common rights like voting, going to a decent school or buying a home where you like, (and isn't that a good thing.) There are young gays who cannot imagine not being 'out'. It is good that there are places where being out and alive isn't a death defying feat. How far is it, really, from Rick Warren to James Dobson? There are plenty of hard core racists who have learned not to use the 'N" word in certain company, but that is all they have learned. Warren puts a smile and some politeness on the same old prejudice in just the same way.
I saw this film with several straight friends,and they all were deeply moved by and cried through the film. So while it doesn't encapsulate your rage, Nancy, for those who most need the movie (i.e., straight people who may know nothing or little about Harvey Milk, his life and death), it is quite revelatory. I think your just angry. I am, and I freely acknowledge that, but just criticizing everything constantly, with nothing ever being good enough, is just your bitterness. I understand, don't get me wrong, I have wrestled that bitterness too, and sometimes it wins, but sometimes you just have to be ok with something, even if it doesn't do what you want done, because it is only you that suffer from your perception of nothing ever being good enough. My straight friends who were so moved and informed by the movies certainly weren't hurting, but they did learn a great deal and then wanted to know about gay struggles, which I could then give them some solid information on. So my suggestion, Nancy, would be for you to make the movie you want to see and not criticize others who made the film they wanted to see. Get back to me when your film is released, and we'll talk......
I really appreciated your commentary. Of course, it might also provide commentary on today's glbtq struggles.
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