DISQUS

autodidact · 11 months ago

I think people should stick to the Harvey Milk documentary, if they want to know the story. No need to jazz it up. And frankly, I think Sean Penn needs to be encouraged to make some brighter pictures. I can only remember him in movies that are downers. Even when he starred in a Woody Allen picture, he played a louse. Recently I screened Falcon and the Snowman for the first time in a long while. Penn made your skin crawl almost the first moment he appeared on the screen. So, he's great, but I tend to avoid his movies, because I'd like something that has a chance of giving me an uplift.

JonCummings · 11 months ago

Prop 8's passage says you're wrong about folks "sticking to" the documentary for Milk's story. Equal rights will only come when a broad swath of Americans become comfortable enough with the common humanity gays and straights share that it overwhelms their prejudices, religious-based and otherwise. (Slavery and bans of interracial marriage were once considered to be justified by the Bible, too.)

A 25-year-old documentary that few people saw will never accomplish that. What America needs is for more stories about openly gay (and proud of it) Americans to play out in the mainstream culture, and to feature mainstream stars.

"Milk" is far from a downer--in fact, right up until the final minutes it's a pretty damn "bright" and uplifting picture--and Penn's characterization is a brave one not in an OMG-he's-gay way, but because he (and Black and Van Sant) portray Milk as a funny, vulnerable, multi-faceted man rather than as a noble victim.

autodidact · 11 months ago

In other words, you are endorsing the movie as a part of the culture war. Which is fine, from your point of view. I thought a movie was supposed to be entertaining. (A documentary is for informing.) I was only responding in terms of my knee-jerk reaction to anything Sean Penn is in. His political activism turns me off. But apart from that, I can't think of any films he's made that I really enjoy much.

Your comment about common humanity is wholly off base. Implying that religious conservatives do not recognize the humanity of homosexuals does not make it true. I can't allow that implication to pass unchallenged. You may continue to believe it, but I object. By the way, I'm sure that you remember Christians were instrumental in fighting slavery in the US. Funny how such hateful people can champion such good causes, isn't it?

JonCummings · 11 months ago

Well, as soon as you start throwing around the words "culture war," you've betrayed a militancy that I just wasn't going for. But in that context, "Milk" is likely to be both a beneficiary and a victim of its timing; more liberals will see it because of current events, but more conservatives will shun it as part of our general refusal to consume media that might change our minds. (Liberals are just as guilty of this as conservatives.)

As for "recognizing the humanity of homosexuals," you'll note that I wasn't referring exclusively to "religious conservatives." Still, to the extent that I was referring to them in part, I don't back away from it one bit--not as long as some Americans are taking basic rights away from other Americans based on logic no more coherent than "the Bible tells me so (never mind what ELSE the Bible tells me)" and "ick."

BobCashill · 11 months ago

It would be nice to see Milk and The Times of Harvey Milk paired on DVD, but I imagine the rights will get in the way. Milk, thankfully, isn't a tract, and if does some good, all the better.

leslieevan · 9 months ago

Hugh Jackman loves Deborra-Lee Furness and I suspect they’ll be together til the end Folks have a tendency to forget that beauty is in the eye of the onlooker, and Im sure Hugh inspects
Deborra thru different eyes than the critics do. Im happy Folk Mag ultimately picked a person deserving of the title Sexiest Man Alive.
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