Source: MTV, indieWire, Hollywood Reporter
More than a week after California narrowly passed Proposition 8, which effectively bans gay marriage, protests have erupted all over the Golden State and elsewhere in the country.
In many ways, the demonstrations mirror the efforts of '70s gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk. As a new biopic, due in theaters November 26, gets ready to tell Milk's story with a newfound relevance, and the film's stars march alongside the Prop 8 protesters, art and life are imitating each other in a very unique way, MTV's Larry Carroll writes.
"Things [since the '70s] have changed, but with Prop 8, it shows that we are not all the way there," James Franco sighed last weekend, offering his support for a movement that had scheduled protests throughout the country for Saturday.
"And if Harvey Milk was alive today, there is no doubt he would be fighting Prop 8 as hard as he could," Franco said. "It just shows that this movie isn't just a history lesson. It's showing issues that are still very much alive today."
As seen in Gus Vant Sant's new film, Milk, Harvey Milk advocated way back in the 1970s that gay people need to make themselves visible in order to change perceptions in society.
"Harvey was great at understanding that unless you advocate for yourself, you'll fail," Milk writer Dustin Lance Black told indieWire the day after a glittering world premiere of the film in San Francisco last month.
"People will vote against you unless they know who they're hurting," Black said. "That middle-of-the-road voter who is happy to vote yes or no on Proposition 8 - [well] I think it just takes some friend or loved one to say, 'You know, that would really hurt me... It would be very hard for me if you did that...'"
At last month's world premiere, across the street from Harvey Milk's old camera store at the Castro Theatre, the scene was reminiscent of the 1970s when Milk lead protests through the neighborhood and inspired a movement. Hundreds held 'No on Prop 8' signs and demonstrated during the red carpet arrivals. "I was a mess, I was crying from the moment I stepped in there...," Black told indieWire's Brian Brooks.
In Milk, Sean Penn portrays the country's first openly gay elected official. Co-starring Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and "Dan in Real Life" actress Alison Pill, the film has garnered some of the best reviews of the year while telling the story of a man who became a San Francisco city supervisor and fought against Proposition 6 -- which sought to fire gay teachers and those who supported them.
Shortly after defeating the proposition in 1978, Milk was shot dead by fellow politician Dan White (played by Josh Brolin).
In the film, Penn's character is told that Prop 6 will most likely succeed despite his best efforts. He optimistically responds that even if they lose, the resulting fury will unify the movement as never before -- a prediction that now seems to be coming true 30 years later, MTV News writes.
"I think he probably would have instigated [the protests]," Brolin said of Harvey Milk, according to MTV News. "The fact of the matter is, he had a huge impact ... on the gay community. Then, after he died, that's billowed. ... If he was alive now, I think he'd be doing exactly what he was doing back then: inspiring people to protest, inspiring people to allow their voices to be heard."
Black and Milk director Gus Van Sant and cover a lot of distance with a simple approach: The key people in Milk's life deliver the key moments, political strategies emerge from personal convictions and emotions spring from the close relationships among the activists, Kirk Honeycutt writes in a review for Hollywood Reporter.
The narrative device is a tape recording Milk, who received many death threats, makes in his final and 48th year to be played in the event of his death. Here he tells the story of his eight years in San Francisco, how he moved there with his lover, Scott Smith (James Franco), founded a camera shop that became a center for the gay community and took up activism to become the Mayor Of Castro Street
"Prop 6 was a completely different bill, but 30 years ago, many of the arguments remain on the other side," Pill told MTV News. "It's the same issues. ... I would hope that the next time something like Prop 8 comes around, or the next time somebody puts something on a ballot like in Arkansas to stop same-sex couples from adopting children to save those children, that somebody will question that argument."
Black's screenplay is based solely on his own original research and interviews. Eventually Black found someone who knew Milk's friend and political associate Clive Jones, a founder the Names Project, and he was on his way to telling Milk's story.
"I didn't know [Jones] was still alive," Black explained to indieWire's Brooks. "I met Cleve and it was love at first sight... He's really amazing. He lived that father/son story with Harvey, and for me, it's something I'm always drawn to - the missing father and how you fill that void."
As depicted in the film, "Milk" was a father figure to Cleve Jones, meeting him while Jones was in his 20s and becoming Jones' close friend and mentor. So, with Cleve Jones's help, Black embarked upon writing the script about Milk.
Black told indieWire's Brooks that he was inspired by Milk's story, in part because he finds opportunity through political action.
"Politics is politics and there's always a lot of bullshit around it, but it's also an opportunity to educate people about the issues, which is the really exciting thing. Whether you win or fail, you're always affecting change... I'd like to get a gay marriage initiative in Texas... Will it ever pass? Probably not, but you will start to change minds. It lets you say, 'hey, we're not all creepsters, and maybe even some of your sons and daughters and friends [are gay]...'"
Source: 'Milk' Stars Say Gay-Rights Pioneer's Story 'Isn't Just A History Lesson' | MTV News
Bottom Line: Superb biopic of Harvey Milk reaches out for cross-cultural audience | Hollywood Reporter
"Milk" and the Movement: Visibility, Politics and Writer Dustin Lance Black | indieWire