Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 12/9/08 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of popsquire.com Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk in the newly- released biopic. Milk was the first openly gay elected official in United States history when he became the mayor of San Francisco. He was the victim of assassination in 1978.

Milk, which is now playing in theatres everywhere, is the story of the first openly gay elected official in United States history. Harvey Milk, who was born and raised in New York, migrated to the Castro district of San Francisco in 1970 with partner Scott Smith (played by James Franco in the film).

Gus Van Sant's motion picture follows Milk's move to the Castro district, his rise as a political leader and gay rights activist and his unfortunate assassination in 1978.

Van Sant has received universal acclaim for nearly two decades for his controversial films such as My Own Private Idaho, Elephant and Drugstore Cowboy as well as his more mainstream works like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester.

With a combination of both of his directing styles, Van Sant uses his penchant for the historically significant story of Harvey Milk to bring a pressing, controversial event to mainstream America. The openly gay director, Van Sant, has wanted to make a biopic about Harvey Milk for over ten years.

Although Van Sant's genius directing and Dustin Lance Black's screenplay formed the basis for this true account, it is Sean Penn's unrelenting interpretation of Harvey Milk that sets this film up for a very deserving Oscar nod.

Besides the fact that a skinnier Penn is the spitting image of the late Milk, he truly encapsulates all the stress and strife that Harvey Milk had to fight through to take a stand against homosexual discrimination in America.

After over two decades of acting and directing, Sean Penn has become a household name and a Hollywood powerhouse for his ability to capture and encompass characters in a truly emotional fashion.

From his characterization of a racist murderer on death row in Dead Man Walking, to his portrayal of the troubled and edgy father of a murdered teenager in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, Penn always delivers Oscar-caliber performances. In addition to Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin and young Hollywood maverick Emile Hirsch were among the cast. James Franco played the trustworthy and sometimes unappreciated Scott Smith, longtime partner of Harvey Milk. He did an outstanding job and continues to show critics his versatility, coming off the universal success of "stoner" comedy, Pineapple Express.

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