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Milk

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RedLion:
Saw this last night! It was really great. It was one of those movies that started out kind of "eh," mediocre. Actually, Penn makes Milk kind of annoying in the beginning. But as it goes on and you get more invested in the character and see him as less of an individual and more of a symbol, it gets better. Even though you know he's going to die in the end, you kind of refuse to believe it until it actually happens--and when it does, it seems so horrendously senseless.

Question: Why, in real life, did the other councilman shoot Milk? I suppose I can understand the mayor, but why Milk, other than the fact that he voted against moving the psychiatric ward? I'm sure other councilmembers were just as obstructionary towards what he wanted to do as Milk was...so why him?

Blademan:
Just saw this a few hours ago, and I was impressed.  I agree with Lion about Penn, the film does a great job of investing you in the character.  Josh Brolin did a great job as Dan White, it was both fascinating and disturbing to watch him slowly unravel over the course of the movie.  The cinematography was great, especially the combination of archival/re-shot footage, and the scene reflected on the side of the whistle.  And yeah, I know it was a biographic, but I was surprised they didn't make a larger mention of the Twinkie Defense.

KvP:

--- Quote from: RedLion on 22 Dec 2008, 20:51 ---Question: Why, in real life, did the other councilman shoot Milk? I suppose I can understand the mayor, but why Milk, other than the fact that he voted against moving the psychiatric ward? I'm sure other councilmembers were just as obstructionary towards what he wanted to do as Milk was...so why him?

--- End quote ---
White had originally intended to kill more people, but he lost his nerve after shooting Moscone and Milk.

There was another Milk biopic that was going to be made from different source material (a book, in that case, as opposed to the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk for this one) by Bryan Singer, who opted instead to make the (apparently awful) Valkyrie whilst Van Sant made this one. The book it was to be based on hammered on the idea of Dan White as homicidally repressed homosexual much more than this film did. It's only suggested once by Sean Penn's Milk early in the film. From the evidence that we have it's possible that White was closeted but he never admitted it if he was. But he was very obviously mentally ill, and cracked under the pressures of a job he was not suited for.

RallyMonkey:
I think the film hinted at it very much. Just more subtle and very well done. I think that was the most devastating part of the whole story, especially with the fact that he committed suicide 2 years after leaving prison.

knives:

--- Quote from: Blademan on 23 Dec 2008, 01:10 ---Just saw this a few hours ago, and I was impressed.  I agree with Lion about Penn, the film does a great job of investing you in the character.  Josh Brolin did a great job as Dan White, it was both fascinating and disturbing to watch him slowly unravel over the course of the movie.  The cinematography was great, especially the combination of archival/re-shot footage, and the scene reflected on the side of the whistle.  And yeah, I know it was a biographic, but I was surprised they didn't make a larger mention of the Twinkie Defense.

--- End quote ---
I think John Waters said it best. I really liked that they showed restraint in not showing Dan White eating a twinkie. Also this hopefully will win BP even if Slumdog is the frontrunner.

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