Milk
Overall I thought the film was amazing. Penn's performance was really great, as was the whole look and feel of the film. It was, as intended, alternately exhilerating and devastating. From what I recall of Randy Shilts's book, it was pretty accurate as well.
The part of the film about the Briggs initiative read like a point-by-point critique of the No on 8 campaign. If it had been released a bit later, I might have guessed it was intended as such. But really that's just the way it was, especially when you tell it from the perspective of Harvey Milk's career: the grassroots movement, the public debates, the emphasis on coming out and educating voters on a personal basis, the far more public opposition by major political figures. Indeed, the movie even leaves out the door-to-door campaign and the organized opposition of what would become the Log Cabin Republicans.
I was puzzled by the obvious erasure of then-Board President and now-Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She appears in archival footage in the opening shot, in a background shot later in the film, and off-camera talking to Milk just before the shootings. She was a political ally of Milk and Moscone, was the first to discover their bodies, and remains a vocal supporter of gay rights, despite her too-late appearance in the Prop 8 fight. What gives?
The part of the film about the Briggs initiative read like a point-by-point critique of the No on 8 campaign. If it had been released a bit later, I might have guessed it was intended as such. But really that's just the way it was, especially when you tell it from the perspective of Harvey Milk's career: the grassroots movement, the public debates, the emphasis on coming out and educating voters on a personal basis, the far more public opposition by major political figures. Indeed, the movie even leaves out the door-to-door campaign and the organized opposition of what would become the Log Cabin Republicans.
I was puzzled by the obvious erasure of then-Board President and now-Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She appears in archival footage in the opening shot, in a background shot later in the film, and off-camera talking to Milk just before the shootings. She was a political ally of Milk and Moscone, was the first to discover their bodies, and remains a vocal supporter of gay rights, despite her too-late appearance in the Prop 8 fight. What gives?