STORY OF FIGHT BY HOMOSEXUALS FOR THEIR RIGHTS A MUST-SEE

Source: Weekend Post

ENTERTAINMENT – 26 May 2009: The year 2006 marked a change of social rights when the legalisation of gay marriages was passed here in South Africa. Milk delivers a convincing message that gays and lesbians deserve human rights just like everyone else.

Even if you are not a homosexual yourself you will enjoy the perseverance and strength of Harvey Milk‘s (Sean Penn‘s) journey to overcome the injustice against homosexuals.

If ever there was a movie that begged you to speak your truth it is this one. It follows the eight- year journey of a gay man who ran for public office, who dreamt big and started off small.

Like a snowball that rolls down a steep mountain getting bigger on its way down, so the truth of who these men were began in one street and travelled from Dade County to Wichita and even to Orange County. In correlation to the message of perseverance is, that if one thing does not work, do it differently.

After Milk found the team wasn‘t getting anywhere he welcomed a woman on board.
Women weren‘t included as part of the movement in the beginning. Most were against having a woman on the team, but Milk welcomed a lesbian with open arms, and things began to run smoother than before.

Together with Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), Scott Smith (James Franco), Jack Lira (Diego Luna) and Anne Kronenberg (Alison Pill) Milk has hundreds of people out in the street, revolting, speaking their truths, being true to themselves.
The sacrifices he makes go beyond family or even having a lover. The aim to free the “us”es out there just took over his life.

It‘s not an issue to be gay, as Dan White tried to argue, it‘s who you are. As this is set in the 1970s Milk speaks about being free whether you‘re black or Asian too. You cannot be sorry for who you are. Everyone, all the “us”es out there deserve human rights.

Quite a few themes were explored. Besides the theme of truth, there was the naming convention. Milk tells a story in a debate of how a gay man was stabbed 15 times and the last word he heard was, “Faggot, faggot, faggot ...”

In a conversation with Dan White (a congressman and family man) he said: “We prefer the word gay to faggot, just as you prefer the word Irishman to the word mic.”
Another theme deals with suicide.

Without revealing too much of the plot, the lesson taught here is that if you‘re in an overwhelming situation, walk away.

There are people out there who can help you, even if you think there are not.
You always have a choice.

The acting was excellent. Sean Penn‘s acting, together with Emile Hirsch‘s, enabled the message of hope to shine through.

And it‘s no coincidence that they work so well together because they worked on another revolutionary movie together: Into the Wild (2007).

Here Penn directed and Hirsch played the main character.

It‘s no surprise that the movie claimed two Oscars: Penn won best performance by an actor in a leading role and Dustin Lance Black won the best writing, screenplay written directly for the screen.

In addition the film won 33 other awards after being nominated for 44.
At the end of it all his message went beyond ego
.
He said: “There is no personal gain, just hope, without hope there is nothing to live for.” Like Nelson Mandela is for South Africa, so Milk was for homosexuals around the world.

This movie is a must-see.