Milk – My vote for the best of 2008
Not that it matters.
I am not an academy or Golden Globe member!
I possess no influence and I am part of no media entourage.
However I feel I can say this categorically. When the stellar dust of Oscar worship settles down, in a year or two, the connoisseurs and auteurs would mark 2008 as the year when Milk was denied but could deny it no more.
For it is a far superior movie with all elements participating it with independent passion that has started to define movies of the coming years. A movie which is made with a missionary zeal, yet using the cinematic arrows with a certainty of craft that a master archer possesses.
Before we step into the post that lavishly praises the movie in a pedestal, let me give you a recap of three events.
A boy is bullied to death by his school mates and his sin? An outwardly projection that is perceived as gay. Read this link for further details on a tragedy that is happening in the sole superpower of this world.
A movement to legitimize the civil union of two men or two women. Not my cup of tea, but coming from a culture where people conduct ceremonial marriage of neem tree to a banyan tree, I understand that marriage is something that is ‘definable’ in absolute terms and I accept to celebrate the difference.
However the third event is from my life when I was not this aware about the realities of my world, yet foolhardily believing in the absolute truth about my ‘realities’. There was a campus and a new entry into a group of men and women ’studying’. The new entrant was as different from any one of them in every possible way. The difference was perceived to be queerness and soon the new person became the target of jokes, some directly told on the person’s face, crushing the already fragile ego and some told behind back, only to gather weight as it passed from ear to ear to make the person sob and cry like no other 22 year old. All of this only added to the magnitude of the joke. After 10 long years of life, and a complete viewing of ‘Milk’, I feel the shame and meanness of the jokes I cracked on this person who was never accepted by a group that included me in a modern city of the country that dreams to be the next ‘Super Power’.
Milk is an eye opener to me.
The movie is not another ‘epic biopics’ that Hollywood churns out every year for the sake of Oscars. It is a careful dramatization of a life laid in sacrifice to multiply the meaning of the voice that sounded so out of sync with a heartless majority. It is a mirror in the face of a public that forgets its scars while having a collective laugh at some of its constituents for their ‘difference’. It is an indictment of those who claim to know the ins and outs of GOD’s grand scheme of things and shun those perceived as distorted while wearing a glass that distorts what they see.
The movie is the message of Harvey milk the first openly gay person in the history of USA to hold an elected office – that of a supervisor in San Francisco. The movie ended with me having an enormous feeling of guilt and in absolute awe of the sacrifice of a marvellous man. A man who came out of his closet and encouraged millions of others to come out and be themselves.
The movie is a literal exposition of the lines of my favourite song of Sting – ‘An Englishman in New york’. The lines that i fondly remembered after the movie
”
Be yourself no matter what they say….
”
But this was not just ignorance he suffered – by coming out – he confronted apathy and hatred. Just as mahatma said about consuming all the hatred as a single bullet to eliminate it, Harvey’s life is about standing up and receive the hatred, be a symbol of collected apathy of the society and open up a debate.
That was about Harvey Milk, the man – a face of USA that I never knew and thanks to the movie I get to know – better late than never! What about the movie itself? I am very sure that after a decade, it is going to be counted as one of the very best of this decade while the famous winners of the previous year will be forgotten. The screenplay of the movie – the way it unfolds a usual done to death biopic genre in a refreshing new way. The cinematography and the production design that bring to life the seventies in an affectingly new way. The music that weaves in and out of the frames like the gold meshes of a Kanchivaram silk saree, the editing that adds beautiful meaning to the carefully crafted scenes by placing the routine scenes in such unexpected places in the movie that they surprise and elevate the poignancy of an already poignant masterpiece.
No words would be enough to describe the performance that is on display in this movie. Three characters that stay in my mind long after the credits have rolled down.
1) Sean Penn offcourse – as Harvey milk simply transforms and made me wonder – was he the ruthless thug I saw in Mystic River or the death row convict in ‘Dead man walking’? I simply cannot believe it. He radiates the spirit of triumph of Harvey Milk. Be it copping the insults or showing that understated elation when he achieves what seem to be miniscule victories in the board he is elected (which are however huge milestones for the civil rights movement) or his romantic whisper to his lover – the man is a man possessed and is an absolute treat to watch and study as far as the acting is concerned.
2) James Franco as scott – the lover of Milk who stands by him and is more or less the conscience of Milk. Amazing portrayal by the loser in Spidey. His face in the candle light march scene melted me million times over.
3) Josh Brolin as the disturbed bigot Dan White who takes the lives of Mayor Moscone and Milk has simply brought the edginess of his character on screen in a stupendous manner. Right from the first scene he brings a cold to the proceedings whenever he is in. The tension between him and Milk are brought out in a wonderful manner bu Josh Brolin who is striking gold with his No Country for Old men act the previous year and Milk this year.
It is not to say as if other performances did not matter, the other performances were too good, but these acts play out in my mind’s eye just at a mere act of recollection.
I have long held the notion that cinema can act as an instrument of social change – not by making an overnight change on a large mass, but in subtle ways, acting on intelligent and sensitive minds. Mahatma noted the influence of two plays in fashioning the fire that became the ‘Satyagraha’ movement. I definitely feel that this movie too can make a mahatma out of you – probably not in a day or a month, but after many years I will look back at this one and remember that moment when a very tightly held pre conceived notion – a shackle on my mind that I had put on for a long time had been broken in a span of 2 hours and 20 minutes and the subsequent days spent in rumination.
Thanks Gus van Sant and Sean Penn. Thanks for showing me Harvey Milk!!
Tags: Dustin Lance Black, Gus Van Sant, James Franco, Milk, Sean Penn, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
i agree with u ,my vote too.i belive it was the only film out of those nominated which really stood out.
“No words would be enough to describe the performance that is on display in this movie.” – Quoted, from your post, for truth.
It’s a brilliant movie.
I believe when you say, “….when a very tightly held pre conceived notion – a shackle on my mind that I had put on for a long time had been broken in a span of 2 hours and 20 minutes and the subsequent days spent in rumination.”, you are talking about how gays are not accepted in Indian society, how people give them a hard time and you regret(? since you feel the shame and meanness of the jokes) that you were also one of those people that cracked jokes at the new queer person? Can you please tell me what was your pre conceived notion and how did it change after you watched ‘Milk’?
The only reason I am asking you is I liked the movie and as I said before it’s a brilliant movie but I saw it from a different perspective than you saw it. I appreciated the acting, plot of the movie, cinematography and other elements of the movie but I do not have any opinion about gays because I personally don’t know / haven’t known anybody who is gay.
Thanks VPJ for this recco..Will def’ly watch..
@VPJ
Very nicely written, havent watched the movie yet. Should be watching it soon. Btw have you watched ‘Pasanga’ yet, really very well made movie, it was like ‘Saroja’ acted out by kids. The kids were brilliant and top notch. Liked the several filmi references and spoofs. Barring the last 20 mins which was a big let down, this is a clear winner all the way. The family audience would lap it up and should be a big it. Hope you write about the movie.
brilliant article man…i liked the fact that u accepted the fact that u were one of the many who were sort of anti-gay and made fun of them and then came to realise what the people on the other side feel…instead of preaching which so many people do, cause of which most people are not able to relate themselves with the ideology…
Sean penn is highly overrated..He constantly sports a constipated expression to portray guilt,ruthlessness whatever….Its a shame that his one-dimensional acting has been rewarded at the expense of more deserving peers…
VPJ..perhaps the best film of last year..I agree..
James Franco was a revelation…I thought he should have been nominated for best supporting actor as against Josh Brolin..who was good as well..but anyhow the award was to go to ‘Joker’, in any case..
Even Diego Luna as the other lover of Milk..is disturbingly good…
@ Ram – Diego indeed tested my limits with his ‘fearless’ acting. It is a movie that makes someone who is so unexposed to the gay rights debate totally uneasy. However what use is the medium if it does not raise uncomfortable questions. It asks the viewers to cross lines – not just a ‘diplomatically correct’ political support, but a heartfelt acceptance and approval of alternate forms of sexuality. A Tall ask it was for me – yet as I said – An eye opener!!
@Jack – atleast be happy that they did not give that one to slumdog as well :-)
I felt that the physical transformation as well as the vulnerability was neatly brought out by Sean.That is my opinion anyways. Pour your views on who else could have done such a role well.
i will go with “the reader” though!!
Sincere Write-up. Thank you.
Again this is my humble opinion,Dead man walking is a case in point,Susan Sarandon doing a marvellous job,but Sean Penn sucked big time in a wonderfully written role..Funny that his lack of emotional resonance is construed as understated acting.. Sean Penn resembles Milk to some extent,that’s his only advantage in this movie.Having said that,i agree with you that Milk is an excellent movie.
“My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you”, my votes too…what a film??? this film was among the finest film of 2008 something which u can watch on every weekend. We are not new to the Gays, but the way it has shown them is totally unexpected and unseen for this side of the world. Gus Van Sant has made brilliant films like Good will hunting but this movie too can be placed in the gems.
@Jack – can u elaborate – what do you mean by emtional resonance?
Agree, Whether finally Oscar or no Oscar – MILK is the most refreshing and memorable watch of all the best movie oscar nominies this year…
For anyone interested, please checkout the Academy Award winning documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk” at Hulu.com
The documentary is available in youtube movies as well!!!