MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Milk Rated R

Directed by Gus Van Sant.  Starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch

Photo © Focus Features
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

A brief perusal of the United Methodist Book of Discipline will reveal the struggles that the church still has around the issue of homosexuality.  While the church acknowledges gays and lesbians as people of sacred worth and worthy of receiving the sacraments, we continue to exclude self-professed and practicing homosexuals from the ordained ministry and prohibit clergy from conducting holy union ceremonies. 

As conflicted as these positions may seem, this film reminds us that we’ve come a long way since the open oppression of the early 1970s.  Violence and discrimination against gays was widespread and many homosexuals lived a life in the shadows. 

This film is a straightforward biography of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (somewhat similar to City Council).  Before he won public office (after the third attempt) Harvey Milk chose to become an unofficial community organizer of the neighborhood around the Castro Theater.  His engaging and upbeat spirit helped to organize labor, business, teachers, Latinos, blacks, and a diversity of folks to work together for community. 

Milk faced a great deal of persecution along the way (much of it from Anita Bryant and other Christian advocacy groups), but he stayed the course, always trying to find common ground.  Milk’s life came to an end when he was assassinated in 1978 (along with Mayor George Moscone) by Dan White, another member of the Board of Supervisors. Sean Penn is energetic and alive in his portrayal of Harvey, and the cast is uniformly excellent. 

Milk incorporates documentary footage and digital effects to create a time machine back to the 1970s and it is an illuminating and needed history lesson.  May we learn from Harvey Milk about the joy of community, as we seek to work for God’s Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.

Pitchfork Rating: Four halos (An inspirational biopic about a pioneer for equality, and a part of American history that needs to be remembered.)
Two pitchforks (Swearing, nudity, scenes of sexual activity and drug use, a scene of violence.)

COMMENTS!

Do you have comments about this movie or movie review? Email comments. (Your comments will be posted to our web site.)