jlh | milk

Saw Milk tonight with

sistermagpie, and it was very good. Apparently The Times of Harvey Milk is available on hulu, and I recommend it not only because it's a superb documentary (it won the Oscar) but also because then you'll know a lot of the larger events in Milk.

As with Frost/Nixon, I'm not sure I can say anything all that spoilery here. The performances were fantastic—Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hircsh, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, and Victor Garber is hilarious as Mayor Moscone. Gus Van Sant mostly stays out of the way of the story here, but one excellent thing he does do is use as much archival footage as possible. Lots of news reports (that people in the movie are watching) and we only hear the voice of Diane Feinstein so he can use the footage of her announcing the assassinations. Anita Bryant also only appears in archival footage. It reminded me of the way that American Splendor integrated interviews and archival footage into the scripted scenes. It added a sense of time and place, and a real sense of the reality of events, as much less needed to be staged.

I highly recommend, but even if you can't, please do watch The Times of Harvey Milk. It's an important story.