Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Seeing MILK at the Castro


Sunday afternoon my family and I went to see Gus van Sant's biopic on Harvey Milk the only way it should be seen if you are a San Francisco resident: at The Castro theater. It's a 1500 person theater and, from what I hear, each of the three screenings (1, 4 and 7pm) were sold out. It was yet another terrific example of how San Francisco supports the movies like few other cities, as well as a fitting tribute to Harvey Milk's work and legacy, though with the recent PROP 8 result there is still lots of work to be done here in the supposedly liberal bastion of California.

Tasteful, understated, well acted, and deeply moving. That's how I'd describe the film. There were very few dry eyes in that crowd. I did not grow up in San Francisco during the tumultuous 1970s, nor am I gay, but seeing the movie in a roomful of folks, many of whom could lay claim to one of those two facts, made an immediate and lasting emotional impact on me. That, I suppose, is the power of a good story, the power of cinema, and the power of the larger than life persona of Harvey Milk.

Go see MILK.

Oh, and for all the California residents out there...NO ON H8! Let's all do everything we can to make it a short lived piece of ultra right propaganda/propositioning.

Back to the regular program next time....