Milk (2008/Universal Blu-ray + DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B/B-     Sound: B/B-     Extras: B-     Film: B

 

 

After some interesting and sometimes abstract feature films that worked more often than not, Director Gus Van Sant finally delivers his first big Hollywood effort since the underrated Finding Forrester (2000) with a long-in-development biopic on slain Gay politician/Civil Rights advocate Harvey Milk in Milk (2008).  At one point, it was reported that Robin Williams was going to take the title role, but Sean Penn finally landed the role and he surprisingly captures the man in uncanny ways.

 

Now it is not easy to do a biopic and not fall into tired traps that goes back to the introduction of sound in the 1930s, but Writer Dustin Lance Black takes an idea that would have been a gimmick in the hands of most and manages to make it work.  Along with Van Sant at the peak of his powers, the film delivers a deeper portrait than you usually get in any biopic.

 

The film begins with Milk talking into a tape recorder about his life in case he is assassinated.  He knows there is more than enough hate despite the counterculture and sexual revolution movements that the country (and world) have not grown up enough to accept people who are “the other” (or cast that way) or that are “different” (as if diversity was a bad thing) and has quietly, painfully, sadly, ominously accepted a sense of doom in advance and not as defeat, but as existential dread that shows why he was a success and had the charisma to win.

 

This leads to a flashback, then flash forward strategy that shows us his life and how the personal simply becomes the public.  It is done with clever subtlety and then a third item is introduced that involves the history of how the new brand of homophobic hate gets launched that Milk does not necessarily have to talk about in the tape recorder; such as Anita Bryant’s deceptively kind campaign where the U.S.’s Christo-Fascist reactionary doctrine is introduced and eventually leads to Milk’s demise.  It is inarguable, proven by history even more than when Van Sant first signed on to this project and beyond obvious as the Reagan Era ends.  The film serves as a sadly ironic coda, though so much still has not changed.

 

The supporting cast is terrific, including James Franco showing range as Milk’s boyfriend Scott Smith, Diego Luna as Jack Lira, Emile Hirsch still showing how good he can act as Cleve Jones and Josh Brolin in the thankless role as Dan White, the politician who kills in the name of a religion that says “thou shall not kill” but does it anyway.  He plays the character with dignity, which makes him three-dimensional, but it is a thankless role and in the end, White allowed himself to also be used as a puppet for free by people who could care less if he was dead or alive.

 

The film still cannot totally escape being a biopic as so many have been done, so I was still left feeling there was more to say and show.  Van Sant’s abstract narrative style on his recent films could have shown some other aspects, but that is a Harvey milk story for another time when people and civilization grow up more.  This version had to be along the lines of Classical Hollywood narrative, but thanks to Van Sant, Black and the cast, hey still made it something exceptional.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image has been convincingly stylized to look like the period in a way that works and that is partly thanks to the ever-talented Harris Savides, A.S.C. in his usually continuing work with Van Sant.  The transfer here is really good, but the styling and necessary use of old analog videotape to show the history hold it back on a performance level, but that is its look.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD is also good and one of the best transfer to have the Focus name to date.  The DTS HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mix has one of the few Danny Elfman scores I have been really happy with, but this is a dialogue-based film and when you and the archival monophonic sound, the multi-channel is not always used, though there is nice ambience to its credit.  The DVD’s Dolby Digital 5.1 does not loose as much of the quality as expected either.

 

Extras include BD Live interactive functions with extra information, plus three featurettes: Remembering Harvey, Hollywood Comes To San Francisco and Marching For Equality.  I wanted a few more extras, but these are very good.  Milk is one of the greatest stories of the 20^th Century and it is nice to see it told with such panache and honesty.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo