source: Milk

talk about a powerful film.the subject matter is quite controversial,even today:gay rights.the film takes place 30 plus years ago,and illustrates the attitudes people had back then and which some people still do today.Sean Penn plays the title character Harvey Milk.Penn,along with James Franco and Diego Luna put in very strong pivotal performances,and really show just how great they are as actors to portray a gay person as convincingly as they did,and then move on to other projects,and play a totally different character just as convincingly.the rest of the supporting is also very good.if this film, doesn't engage you and get you thinking,i'd be very surprised.it got my blood boiling a couple of times.it is based on a true story,and there is actual footage from that period used in the film.for me,Milk is 9/10

Weird.I have to be honest...I wasn't very PRO to gay people.I tought-God created a man and a woman...if gay people are bound to be,why weren't there two Adams or two Eves?But i've seen this movie.and I got interested in Harvey Milk.I read the article on him from wikipedia and I must say...I'm impressed.I mean,we just don't know.It may be religioulsly wrong,and it may not be.Anyway,the point is that this film really made me thing about things.It changed my opinion.It impressed me,just like the true story of Harvey Milk.And that is what a good movie is made for.To impress! Watch it!You won't regret

POSITIVES: 1) Sean Penn's performance is incredible. He completely transforms himself and plays his role perfectly. All the performances are great but Penn shines. 2) I usually dislike narration in films, but I actually enjoyed Penn's narration in this film 3) The direction and cinematography are both very good, lots of long takes and there is a shot of the reflection of a whistle that is masterful NEGATIVES: 1) The way Milk instantly "picks up" Franco and Luna's characters was quite uncomfortable 2) The film suffers from a problem most biopics do: there are frequent montages and fast forwards in order to try and cram everything into one film 3) By skipping over lots of time very quickly, the film was often quite uninteresting and not engaging for me. The protest scenes and the marching scenes are fantastic but I found the frequent scenes of Milk's personal life and partying very uninteresting

I have to admit, that I wasn't aware of the real Harvey Milk, that this movie is based on. All I knew, when I watched it (before it got it's pre-Oscar nominations) was that Sean Penn was playing the lead role. I didn't even know about the great supporting cast (if you look at the names here, it's a who's who of young and upcoming great actors all gathered here). Sean Penn is again mesmerizing and he can really make you forget all about Sean Penn, you see the character he's playing. We're talking about one of the best actors having graced the cinema screen, but even he might not be enough for some. I'm talking about the subject of the movie of course. I won't say anything about it, but let's just say, that he's portraying a person who has a pretty difficult stand in society. And the movie, although it portrays things that lie way in the past, came out at a time, when a similar problem (law) came up ... It's essential viewing, despite what believes you might have ...

Despite being gay and having most of my friends praise "Milk" I must disagree. While Sean Penn's performance was Oscar-worthy and there was much to like, overall it was another Gus Van Sant bore. First of all it was much too dark. I doubt these vibrant people had so many meetings by low lamplight. Much of the conversation was muddled. The story thread was confusing. And there was no character development. Who was Milk? Why did he tolerate his last lover's looniness. Plus all the characters were your basic cliché queens. Surely there must have been one manly gay hanging around, after all bars everywhere are full of them. The Dan White role, while well-played, was totally undeveloped. Who was he? What did he really want? What was his family life like? This is a highly overrated movie that has been so overpraised that most people are probably afraid to venture any criticism.

This film is a meaningful true story, and it does such a great job of highlighting how important Milk's contributions were to gay/human rights while also showing us the guy behind the legend. Depictions of San Fran at the time were also very well done. Sean Penn is amazing in this - one of his best roles.

Milk is nothing more than a character study. It focuses exclusively on the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay politician in the United States. Unfortunately, Sean Penn portrays Milk as a one-dimensional caricature akin to a SNL sketch. So, if Milk offers us nothing more than a character study, and there isn't any character to study, I am inclined to believe that the film is about nothing. Sure, there are some social criticisms mentioned. But they are generic and almost literally spelled out for the audience (ex. "Be yourself"). Despite these fatal criticisms of the main performance and script, the Academy honored both with an Oscar.

"Milk" is a true story film about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay supervisor for San Francisco, and his campaign for supervisor. Throughout the film, you see many pros and cons on homosexuality and you see the strength and integrity of Harvey Milk all the way through the end when Harvey Milk is assassinated. This is an amazing film. I was deeply affected by it. Sean Penn was magnificent as the slain supervisor, and I love the messages that are brought out. One is that anyone can run for supervisor, and two, prejudice can be beaten. Although I'm not gay, I do think that gay marriage should be legal and that people must realize that this is a civil rights issue, and I'm glad that this man started a generation of people that would stand up and say, "Enough. This must stop." Please see it. It's magnificent.

I'm a stranger to California. When I heard of the assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk I had little idea what it meant, aside the tragedy of two lives stolen through murder. The film tells as much a civil rights story as it does the personal story of Harvey Milk. Sean Penn gives such a convincing performance I'm frequently believing I'm watching Milk, but Penn isn't the only strong performance in this film, the entire cast is strong and I feel I'm watching history re-enacted in the place and time of events. How faithful is Milk to actual history? That I cannot say, aside liberties must have been taken at various points because the dead are not here to tell how it was, but as a film underscoring a branch of civil rights it makes a convincing point. Particularly after the passing of California Proposition 8 and other anti-gay rights measures around the United States.