Milk (2008)

A touching bio-pic about the all too short political life of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) the first openly gay elected official in America.

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For over a decade Gus Van Sant had been attached as director to a bio-pic on Harvey Milk. So what was holding him up? Oh just the long shadow of a little Oscar-winning documentary called The Times of Harvey Milk.  How do you make your film anything more than actors re-staging the legendary moments that were already so vividly captured in the documentary? By showing us the moments when there were no cameras.

I don't care who you are: when a camera is on you, you're never your real self. Sure the re-staged rallies and marches are amazing (Gus had lots of practice re-staging iconic moments from his Psycho remake) but it's the small moments that really sell this film. Scenes of Harvey and his boyfriend Scott and scenes of back-room political deal making, this is where we really get to see Harvey. Van Sant and Penn are able to take us inside these private moments. They are even able to take us into Harvey's most private moment - his death.