Revisiting Milk: Gus Van Sant’s expertly married the personal and the political in this stirring biopic

Milk, which won actor Sean Penn an Oscar for Best Actor, released 13 years ago in 2008.

The release of Gus Van Sant’s Milk about the extraordinary life of gay rights activist and political Harvey Milk, marked a watershed moment in the history of Hollywood. Not only did the film amass a whopping $55 million at the box office (which was almost double the production cost of the film valued at $20 million), it went on to be nominated across eight Oscars categories, and snagged two trophies — including one for Sean Penn as Best Actor.

However, the genius of the film isn’t how it spotlights the plight of the LGBTQI+ community. Instead, the film chooses to focus on the final eight years of Milk’s life, after remaining in the closet for 40 years — from 1970, a day before his birthday, finding his partner in Scott Smith (James Franco), entering the San Francisco political arena to his assassination in 1978.

A 1984 documentary on Milk, titled The Times of Harvey Milk was the first attempt at adapting his life to screen. But Gus Van Sant’s Milk, with Sean Penn essaying the role of Milk with unshakeable conviction, was the first fictional feature that delves into both the public and the private life of the enigmatic man. Thus, to call Milk just a biopic would perhaps be reductive. It is as much a romantic tale as it is a film on civil rights or a social statement.

Milk subtly and painstakingly recreates the 1970s anti-gay sentiment right in the beginning. The opening minutes of the film sees Milk walk down a New York subway platform, the same place he met Scott Smith for the first time and fell in love. But he feels untethered to New York, and wishes to relocate to the gay neighbourhood of The Castro in San Francisco. Despite this geographical shift, Mc Connely, a bar owner in the same neighbourhood, cleans off his hand with a handkerchief after shaking his hands with Milk. Later, he threatens Milk to stay out of his business or the San Francisco police would be happy to ‘enforce’ them. This abject ostracisation even in the purported gay neighbourhood indicates how acceptance of the community was still far from sight.

Milk pulsates with rousing rhetoric, thunderous claps and the charm of a man who refused to cower down. Milk was an expert leader, and the beacon of the community who rose through the ranks despite being discriminated against at every juncture. His speeches were not groundbreaking, they simply pointed to the fact that the society had systematically erased the voices of many, and it was time their perspective was brought to light too, without the fear of social boycott.

The film recreates Milk’s 1978 speech at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade verbatim — where he declared the importance of coming out of the closet. He urged every member in the crowd to “break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions.” Not just for their own sake, but for those for everyone they know, who need the nudge. For him, death by silence was as much of death as being assassinated.

The other brilliant strategy that Van Sant incorporated was establishing the fate of its protagonist in the beginning. By eliminating the element of shock and horror of watching a heroic figure being assassinated in the end, the film is able to focus on the events that led to changing the course of history. It is symbolic, because Milk’s struggles for social equality transcended even death. Which is why, the closing scenes of the film are not of a dead man, but that of a candlelight march. Milk’s ‘Hope Speech’ plays in the background, symbolising that while the man’s life had abruptly been cut short, his legacy and his activism was far from dead.

However, Van Sant did not want his viewers to forget about Milk’s fate, either.

Despite the film’s relentless optimism, a shroud of sadness looms large over it. In a poignant scene, Harvey Milk points out that maybe he won’t “make it to 50 years old.” The same reference is echoed later when Scott jokes that maybe he would live till 50, after all. Sean Penn is heartbreakingly beautiful in these scenes, laying bare all the vulnerabilities of the character who wants nothing but acceptance for the gay community. Penn’s acting is one of the many factors that have generously contributed to the film’s legacy. The method actor completely transformed into Harvey, perfectly imbibing every mannerism to the last detail.

In a 2018 interview screenw riter Dustin Lance Black shared that they were doubtful the film would even get greenlit. But he believed that Harvey Milk’s life was not just a stirring, inspiring story, but also a “road-map”. Indeed, the film is unabashedly celebrating its central hero. And it makes no qualms about its hagiographic tone. Despite the dramatisation, though, the film never fully becomes a biographical drama. Sure, the film is not a political manifesto, but an intimate portrait of a queer man. Van Sant expertly weaved archival footage of the Castro ecosystem and the cinematic recreations, blending history, reality and fiction into a moving narrative. The film is always reality-adjacent, featuring real-life figures that inspired their cinematic counterparts.

Thirteen years after its release, Milk’s legacy remains unmatched. With gentle humour and melancholy, the Gus Van Sant directorial convincingly married the personal and the political.

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

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