My name is Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you

I've wanted to see Milk since we first saw previews for it several months ago, but unfortunately, it never came to the local cineplex. So, although it's already out on DVD, we took advantage of the opportunity to see it on the big screen when it came to the old Bama Theatre downtown this weekend.

Being a history buff, I was well aware of Harvey Milk's story, but you don't have to be to understand the film and grasp its meaning. Director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Black aptly introduce us to all the main characters and establish their significance to the story without bogging us down in a lot of unnecessary build-up.

We meet Milk (the definitely Oscar-worthy Sean Penn) in a New York City subway has he stops a stranger (James Franco's adorable Scott Smith) and asks him to celebrate his 40th birthday with him. The two run away together to San Francisco, where a series of experiences catapult Milk into political activism and, eventually, public office. Through dialog alone, we get an excellent sense of Milk's background prior to that fateful meeting. Also, simply by jumping from one significant event to the next (which keeps the film moving along and the audience captivated), we come to fully appreciate how much Milk's devotion to the cause cost him and those around him.

Josh Brolin appears in just a handful of scenes as the conflicted city Supervisor Dan White, but the writing and acting in those scenes more than adequately provide insight into his state of mind. The irony of a drunk White proclaiming outside Milk's birthday party that he "has issues" is lost on no one.

Milk, particularly the footage of the memorial at the end, serves as a beautiful tribute to the man on the 30th anniversary of his death. The story is inspirational in the sense that it shows how one person can go from a humble life of "nothing to be proud of" to achieving greatness by standing firm to his convictions, taking action and rallying others to join his cause. On the other hand, it's also a somewhat depressing eye-opener.

Thirty years have passed, and little has changed. Although it's definitely easier for folks to be openly homosexual now than it was 30 years ago, there still are those forces that would seek to treat the homosexual community as aberrations. The language of Anita Bryant and the other conservative, "family values"-centered individuals who speak out against gay rights in the film echoes the sentiments of those who to this day try to prevent homosexuals from enjoying the same rights as the heterosexual population. Only months ago, the very state in which Milk and his cohorts fought to prevent the passage of Prop. 6 passed Prop. 8, and the rhetoric in favor of that equally demeaning and ridiculous proposal was no different from what we heard in the theatre this afternoon.

It's astounding the irrationality that stems from a fear of that which is different from you. When Milk debated Prop. 6 initiator John Briggs, he approached the conversation with logic and reason whereas Briggs spoke in circles and contradictions. It reminded me a great deal of the Republican propaganda that circulated during the recent Presidential election campaign, which used absurd half-truths and self-refuting ideas in an attempt to explain why Barack Obama's push for universal equality was bad.

For that reason and many others, it's interesting that the release of Milk coincided with Obama's election. Never in my lifetime had I seen people as engaged in the political process and excited about the prospects of change and equal rights as they were in this film - until Obama ran for and was elected president. Although those who seek to suppress the rights of those who are different clearly never will go away, perhaps we still can move toward the ideals for which Milk died.