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DVD The Times of Harvey Milk
A devastatingly skillful and emotionally compelling documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk charts the political rise and brutal slaying of the first openly gay city official in the United State, Harvey Milk. Ironically, the same election that brought Milk to the board of city supervisors of San Francisco also elected the man who killed him, a former police officer and fireman named Dan White. After White shot both Mayor George Moscone and Milk, his defense lawyers convinced the jury that White's judgment was impaired by depression and junk food, resulting in a conviction for manslaughter instead of murder--a verdict that prompted riots. With care and conviction, The Times of Harvey Milk captures not only Milk himself, but also the political and social landscape in which these events took place. The interviews--with friends, politicians, and journalists--are articulate and heartfelt, expressing the impact that Milk had upon this historical moment. --Bret Fetzer
That Harvey Milk's election to the San Francisco city council made him the first openly gay elected official in the country certainly justifies this documentary look at his life and career. The fact that this political event coincides with the ascendancy of Anita Bryant, the Moral Majority, and California's controversial Proposition 6 (which sought to make it illegal to employ any gay person as a teacher in the state's public school systems) gives the film a nail-biting second act. But add the fact that Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by fellow council person Dan White, and you have a riveting truth is stranger than fiction psycho-political drama. The scenes and remembrances of the spontaneous candlelight march from the Castro to City Hall by thousands of citizens are moving and speak of a grief and loss that goes deeper than words. The film goes on to document the Dan White trial, the "Twinkie Defense", and the violent reaction to verdict. Unfortunately, you can't view the film today without realizing that at the time these interviews were being filmed, AIDS was already invisibly working its way through the community and would soon all but wipe out this generation of gay men in San Francisco. That's a different story, I know (see Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt ), but it's like watching happy passengers board the Titanic, talking about a future that you know will never happen for many of them.
Well Done
The docu tells Milks story. It's touching and insightful. A piece of San Francisco's history in this 80+ minute movie. I was impressed and I learned a lot. It's well deserving of its Oscar.
"I know that you cannot live on hope alone."
Harvey Milk was the elected supervisor of District 6 in San Francisco when he was murdered--along with Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978, by fellow supervisor, Dan White (who later claimed the infamous "Twinkie defense"). The film "The Times of Harvey Milk" firmly places the murder of Milk, a gay politician, into the politically significant context of the times. The crime, the verdict, and the sentence served were all shocking. This film tells the story behind the headlines.
Milk was a stockbroker on the East Coast, when he decided to pull up roots and head for San Francisco. He opened a camera shop on Castro Street and quickly earned the name of "Mayor of Castro Street" for his enthusiastic community involvement. His interest led to several failed attempts to run for city office, but when the city's elections ran by district--rather than citywide--Milk became the newly elected supervisor for the Sixth District. Milk's enthusiasm and talent for politics thrived in city hall.
The film includes photographs, newsreel footage, and many interviews with those who crossed Milk's path in a professional or personal capacity. Milk was passionate about public transportation, rent control, and the rights of seniors and gays. White, on the other hand, found San Francisco's Gay Day "obscene." Eerily, there are several photos of Milk that also include his killer--clean cut, ex-fireman and family man, Supervisor Dan White. The film explores the flavour of the times--San Francisco was becoming a gay Mecca, and there were some people who couldn't adjust to that fact. Senator John Briggs, who called San Francisco "the moral garbage dump of the nation" was fighting to get a proposition put on the ballot that would allow gay teachers to be fired. Milk fought this ballot tooth and nail, and it failed.
The film "The Times of Harvey Milk" includes two discs. One disc contains the film, and the other disc is packed with extra features--including coverage of the film's premiere in Castro Street, a Dan White update, 1st and 25th anniversary events of the crime, director's commentary, the Academy Awards 1985, and a photo gallery. For those of us who remember the headlines, "The Times of Harvey Milk" is a fascinating documentary that places the crime firmly in the context of its time--displacedhuman
Before Stonewall is a documentary about evolution, namely the evolution of gay culture in the U.S. from the early 1920s to the Stonewall riot of 1969. Embellished with archival footage and photography from five decades, the film most prominently features the gay underground of the '20s and '30s, the rise of gay service in the military and workforce during WWII, the persecution of gays as "subversives" and "sexual perverts" in the state department by Senator McCarthy, the growth of the first grassroots political organizations for gay men and lesbians in the '50s, and of course, the civil rights movement. Commentary is provided by the gay men and lesbians who came of age in the years leading up to Stonewall.
The companion film to Before Stonewall, After Stonewall, narrated by Melissa Etheridge, explores gay history in the U.S. from the 1970s through the 1990s. Like its predecessor, After Stonewall attempts to cover much ground in a short amount of time; however, with only three decades to span, the assignment is more manageable.
The film covers the predictable highs and lows of the last 30 years of the 20th century. On the side of triumph, it explores the declassification of homosexuality as a disease; the growth of gay presses and writers; gay wins in political office (notably Harvey Milk and Elaine Noble); and the formation of a national gay lobbying presence in the Human Rights Fund. On the flip side, we witness the antigay hysteria evoked by Anita Bryant; the rise... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Scagliotti DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Author Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City) wrote Lily Tomlin's narration for this superb documentary, based on a book by the late Vito Russo, about Hollywood's treatment of homosexual characters in the 20th century. Never pointing a finger at anyone in the film community, The Celluloid Closet presents clips from more than 100 mainstream features (including The Children's Hour, Advise and Consent, The Boys in the Band, and The Hunger) that speak loudly in their respective images of gays and lesbians. The film makes a persuasive case for patterns of sexual mythology in Hollywood, such as presenting homosexuals repeatedly as tragic, helpless figures redeemed only through death or as back-street monsters cavorting in the shadows. Things change, of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lily Tomlin Director(s): Jeffrey Friedman - Rob Epstein DVD Release Date: Released the 29 May 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the best films of 2004, Kinsey pays tribute to the flawed but honorable man who revolutionized our understanding of human sexuality. As played by Liam Neeson in writer-director Bill Condon's excellent film biography, Indiana University researcher Alfred Kinsey was so consumed by statistical measurements of human sexual activity that he almost completely overlooked the substantial role of emotions and their effect on human behavior. This made him an ideal researcher and science celebrity who revealed that sexual behaviors previously considered deviant and even harmful (homosexuality, oral sex, etc.) are in fact common and essentially normal in the realm of human experience, but whose obsession with scientific method frequently placed him at odds with his understanding wife... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Liam Neeson - Laura Linney - Chris O'Donnell Director(s): Bill Condon DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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