Milk
by Gus Van Sant
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DVD details
Actor: Alison Pill, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Sean PennDirector: Gus Van Sant
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 128 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-03-10
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Product features:
- TESTED
DVD Reviews of Milk
DVD Review: It's so focused on the message that it fails to flesh out the man behind that message...
Summary: 4 Stars
There is no denying that `Milk' is a very good film; a biopic that is engrossing and at times very moving. Thanks in large part to some stellar casting (seriously, there is rarely a sour note when concerning the performances) as well as Gus Van Sant's surprisingly graceful direction (he's always `graceful' but this is truly a different side to him) the film is at the very least entertaining and insightful. That said; when the film credits began to roll I didn't really feel anything. I turned to my best friend and said "well that was good", but that was exactly how I felt.
`Milk' was good.
I guess maybe I was expecting too much, I don't know, but I don't find this the utter masterpiece that a lot of people are claiming it to be. I felt that it was slightly (or maybe not so slightly) manipulative, and this took away from the raw feeling of honesty in Van Sant's direction. The films primary focus was constantly on politics and so we are never truly given a chance to connect emotionally to the characters and thus when each and every major character (aside from White) appears to be flawless we are left rather apathetic. I'm not going to get into a huge debate (with myself or with those who so chose to comment on my particular thoughts) about the need for biographical flaws, because each and every film is different. Take the Oscar winning `A Beautiful Mind' for instance. The entire weight of the film hinged solely on our emotional connection to John Nash, and so to expose his supposed flaws (sporadic flings with men while he was married to Alicia) would have only lessened our view of him and may have tampered with the desired resulting effect on the audience. With `Milk' though, I feel that making Harvey Milk a flawless martyr took away from what made him human. In the battle for equal rights one has to feel as though they are equals, but `Milk' showed almost no equality.
It felt very one-sided to me.
This isn't a major flaw, but it is a flaw to say the least. In the end I didn't feel like I got to know the real Harvey Milk but more or less a biased view of the `hero' he was. I'm not saying he wasn't a hero to a certain community (I find it rather insulting that this site won't let me use the three letter word that starts with a G and ends with a Y even though I see it on plenty of other reviews) but in order to make this film translate to everyone their needed to be a larger sense of genuine (believable) humanity. Again, I go back to the fact that the film is largely a very political film, and so we aren't given a very detailed look at Harvey's personal life aside from a few trysts and work relationships. Those relationships appear to be more subplots and thus seem less important, where I feel that the whole point of a biopic is to come to know the real man, and that requires knowing his life away from the spotlight.
I don't want to seem like I'm tearing the film apart, because like I said, it is a good film and at times it is very good. The acting is such a huge highlight that it helps cement the film and thus keep our interest glued throughout. Without that strong personal connection though, the acting seems less like a fluid progression of character and more like a series of dramatically constructed scenes. Take Dan White for instance, the films central villain. I never felt like I got a true sense of who this man was. He appeared to be nothing more than a selfish and ignorant man who had anger issues. Sure, Brolin's portrayal was brilliant, especially the drunk confrontation scene, but there was no genuine character development in the script. Thus he felt more like the `token bad guy' to me than a real person. Same with Scott, Franco's character, who felt more like the suffering spouse than anything else. Again, what he did with what he was given was amazing (talk about adding notes to a one-note character) but in the end the character felt unfinished.
I think that `Milk' would have been aided by a longer running time, because then maybe we would have had the chance to truly flesh out the man inside of Harvey and not just the goal he had in mind. His aspirations were admirable, but I wanted to really know him, warts and all. Beings that the films primary focus was on the message then exposing Milk's flaws would have only deepened our understanding of the man, not take away from the message.
So, my feelings on `Milk' are this; the film is good (I give it a low B), but it could have really been wonderful. I thought that Van Sant's direction was inspired (he definitely went commercial, but no where near the `sell out' kind of commercial he went with `Good Will Hunting'), especially the effortless additions of raw footage, and that murder scene is probably the single best scene in the film, and possible the `scene of the year'. I also thought that all performances stood out and elevated their material (while I was totally rooting for Rourke, Penn's complete transformation here was a very worthy Oscar win), but the script in my opinion was lacking. It was one-sided and manipulative and, while it gave us an insightful look at the political stance of this man, it failed to really uncover who he was.
Description of Milk
MILK - DVD MovieWhen a famous person, like the nation's first openly gay male city supervisor, inspires an acclaimed book (The Mayor of Castro Street) and Oscar-winning documentary (The Times of Harvey Milk), a biopic can seem superfluous at best. Taking over from Oliver Stone and Bryan Singer, Gus Van Sant, whose previous picture was the more experimental Paranoid Park, directs with such grace, he renders the concern moot. Unlike Randy Shilts' biography, which begins at the beginning, Dustin Lance Black's script starts in 1972, just as Milk (Sean Penn, in a finely-wrought performance) and his boyfriend, Scott (James Franco, equally good), move from New York to San Francisco. Milk opens a camera shop on the Castro that becomes a safe haven for victims of discrimination, convincing him to enter politics. With each race he runs, Harvey's relationship with Scott unravels further. Finally, he wins, and the real battle begins as Milk takes on Proposition 6, which denies equal rights to homosexuals. He does what he can to rally politicians, like George Moscone (Victor Garber) and Dan White (Josh Brolin). While the mayor is willing, the conservative board member has reservations, and after Milk fails to back one of White?s pet projects, the die is cast, leading to the murder of two beloved figures. If Van Sant?s film captures Harvey in all his complexities (he was, for instance, a very funny man), Milk also serves as an enticement to grass-roots activism, showing how one regular guy elevated everyone around him, notably Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), the ex-street hustler who created the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial. Released in the wake of Proposition 8, California?s anti-gay marriage amendment, Milk is inspirational in the best way: one person can and did make a difference, but the struggle is far from over. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Get to Know the Cast From Milk
 Sean Penn (Harvey Milk) |  Josh Brolin (Dan White) |  James Franco (Scott Smith) |
Beyond Milk on DVD
 Get in on Blu-ray |  More from Focus Features |  Shop More Oscar Nominees & Winners |
Stills from Milk (Click for larger image)
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