One Paragraph Review: Milk

Forgive me now, but this is going to be a long paragraph. 2008 was not a great movie-going year for me. I rarely got myself to a theater to view a new film. But choosing to spend time during my precious few days in San Francisco seeing "Milk" at the Castro Theater was an amazing movie-going experience. I was expecting the experience to be cool--after all I'm seeing the movie in the freaking neighborhood where it all took place. But I was not expecting to enjoy the film as much as I did. This movie has it all: stellar acting, incredible writing, wonderful pacing. It was one of the best memoir-type films I have ever seen, and was a great tribute to Harvey Milk and to the LGBT community that has fought so hard for equality. Speaking of that fight...I of course expected I'd be in tears at the end of the movie due to the inevitable tragic ending, but I was not expecting to be quite so sad and disheartened after viewing this. A good chunk of the plot line centers around Milk and his colleagues fighting CA Proposition 6 which would have banned gays and lesbians, and even their supporters, from working in public schools. Given the recent and very disappointing victory of CA Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, for me the takeaway point from the movie was that 30 years after Milk's time, the LGBT community and its allies still have a lot of fight to go.