Harvey Milk's story timely after Prop. 8
By Anthony Kaufman
The Wall Street Journal
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.27.2008
Gus Van Sant has never considered himself a political filmmaker. Some of his early movies, including 1989's "Drugstore Cowboy," about a tight-knit group of addicts, and 1991's "My Own Private Idaho," starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix as street hustlers, dealt with politically sensitive subjects.
But his Oscar nomination for "Good Will Hunting," a straightforward drama about an unlikely math whiz (played by then-newcomer Matt Damon) validated the Hollywood outsider's ability to play the mainstream game.
Van Sant's latest project, "Milk," which opens in Tucson Dec. 12, is unabashedly political. Starring Sean Penn as gay activist Harvey Milk, the film chronicles the San Francisco politician's struggles for equal rights in the late 1970s, particularly his successful battle against Proposition 6, a California initiative that would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools.
With the recent passage of California's anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8, Milk's legacy is as topical as ever. Van Sant has personally stayed out of the political fray, but he believes "Milk" could still make an impact.
How do you see "Milk" as relevant to the recent election?
"People are saying Proposition 8 was fought largely without using the word 'gay,' without people being upfront about what it meant. Obviously, gay marriage was an upfront term, but the way in which the campaign was directed was like the Prop. 6 campaign of California Rep. Phil Burton, which Harvey got so mad about for avoiding the term gay."
Do you think the movie could have made a difference if it was released before the vote?
"I think it would have made a difference. On that level, we kind of blew it by not coming out during the election, and rushing to have it finished in time. But we decided that a better film is better than trying to rush it. It's a long fight and there are many states involved and the propositions will come and go over our lifetimes."
So how do you think it could have actually made a difference?
"I think people possibly would have felt connected to the characters and heard the message. Maybe the movie would have endeared people to these original political pioneers."
How do you think the country has evolved on gay rights since Harvey Milk was killed in 1978?
"Today, there are pretty huge differences. You couldn't dance with a same-sex person in a bar without getting arrested. Even within that decade of the '70s, there were very big steps, due to politicians and activists, like Harvey, bringing gay life out of criminality and into a non-criminal situation. Today, there have been a lot of advances, mediawise. One of the last deals is the label of marriage."
"Milk" is far more explicit in its depictions of gay romance than "Brokeback Mountain" or other mainstream gay-themed movies. Why was that important?
"There are things we do show and things we don't show. We wanted to show that the characters were gay and they actually had a sex life. However, there wasn't a visual representation of other kinds of life — bar life, cruising life, in-the-park-sex life. But with the main characters being a couple, for instance, we felt they were lovers, and actors Sean Penn and James Franco put into it what they knew about being lovers."
0 Comments on this story
