Such a frustrating disappointment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The title of this excellent documentary is well chosen, since it is as much about a time and a place as it is about Harvey Milk. The time is the late 1970s and the place is San Francisco. After quickly covering some biographic details the movie concentrates on Milk's campaign to get elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. After three unsuccessful attempts he wins, becoming the first openly gay man to be so elected. As much of a breakthrough as that was, it must be kept in mind that Milk was elected representing a heavily gay district. Things have changed a lot in thirty years, since some U.S. congressmen are now openly gay. But the issue of acceptance of homosexuality is still contentious, as proved by the passage in 2008 of Proposition 8 that changed the California Constitution to ban gay marriage. This documentary is relevant since it shows where things started to change.A good part of the film is devoted to consideration of California's Proposition 6 that was put before the public in 1978. Proposition 6 would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools. Of course Milk was heavily involved in opposition to the Proposition and it was a peak moment for him and the gay community when the proposition failed. The filming of the celebration of this in the gay community is a high point of the film.It was only shortly after the defeat of Proposition 6 that Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a fellow supervisor who had recently resigned, but was seeking reinstatement. The spontaneous candlelight vigil on the evening of the assassination that comprised some 40,000 people marching from the Castro neighborhood to City Hall was captured on film from the roof of a nearby building and is an exceedingly moving emotional highlight of the film.This film is clearly tilted to present Milk in a favorable light and indeed that is not difficult, since Milk's charisma comes across strongly. However, it is mentioned that Milk was subject to fits of anger and could be difficult to work with. Also, Dan White's anguished testimony at his trial is played and he seemed genuine in his expression of regret, but hardly enough to exonerate him in the minds of most people. When White got what was considered a light seven year sentence, the ugly rioting and vandalism that resulted were not whitewashed. White was released from prison after serving five and a half years and committed suicide less than two years later. So, in the end he paid the price for his crimes.The interviews with some of Milk's associates almost ten years after his assassination are very effective. They are all articulate and insightful about themselves and the history of the times of Harvey Milk. The use of documentary footage from the time is effective and either a gay or a straight can appreciate this documentary as history.

There was a time when it was impossible for people — straight or gay — even to imagine Harvey Milk. The funny thing about Milk is that he didn't seem to care that he lived in such a time. I think Milk is really courageous to face himself and he even doesn't mind how others look upon him. Besides, he puts into practice what he wants to do and he indeed achieves his dream. Although he was killed in the end, it probably awakened as many gay people as his election had. Realizing one is a gay is usually causes for terror, or at least mortification, but Milk felt too great a sense of entitlement to let either emotion prevail. It is no doubt that Milk is such a legendary person in the world.

Touching movie. A man who bravely expressed his homosexual opinion in the history is Harvey Milk. He is not one of the most mediocre, but an extraordinary man. Although he was assassinated by unknown gang, his deeds have been commemorated by the mass that has always supported him. He launched the way which spoke out the right of homosexual guys itself. What Milk did pushed homosexual right to go step forward, one after another. Because of him, the gay circle has become not only more ubiquitous but less prejudiced. After that, the novels, films and even the daily soft operas on TV, it implied that "homosexual" this term has been more and more acceptable. Also, due to his sacrifice, his deeds have been displayed. So, gay guys come out.

Harvey Milk was too good to be true, too unaffected as a debater, too approving of silliness, too capable of laughing at himself, too serious about equality, too angry about inequality, to endure on this plain of existence as a leader. Time has thanked his bravery in running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and becoming California's first openly gay public official. Why was that so brave? Because that conquest may well have been at his own peril.Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning documentary illustrates the life and death of not only Milk but odd one out Mayor George Moscone, who both were killed by Dan White, one of Milk's fellow supervisors. It also depicts the political and social atmosphere in San Francisco, which throughout the 1960s and '70s began to be a magnet for emergent quantities of gays owing to its customarily accommodating viewpoint. Milk was one of them, and in old photographs we see him in his beatnik days before he ultimately shaved and opened a camera store in the Castro District. It was from Castro that Milk ran for office and was beaten three times before at long last winning in the same election that placed the first man of Chinese extraction, the first black woman, and the first declared feminist on the board. Milk was a virtuoso self- promoter, and this Harvey Fierstein-narrated opus embraces first-rate TV news footage showing him campaigning on such matters as people not picking up their dogs' poop, and stepping, with accurate measure, into a tactically located pile of such at the culmination of the interview.There is a whole heap of great footage of Milk, Moscone, and White, who disliked gay people. It is interspersed with later interviews with many of Milk's loyal comrades, including a seasoned leftist who confesses that he was bigoted against gays until he met Milk and began to appreciate the political concerns implicated. There is immeasurably touching, volume- speaking footage of the two demonstrations motivated by the deaths of Milk and Moscone: a noiseless, candle-lit procession of 45,000 people on the night of their deaths, and an outraged night of rioting when White got what a compassionate sentence.This is an enthralling piece, as the light it casts on a decade in the life of a great American city and on the lives of Milk and Moscone, who made it a better, and unquestionably more appealing, location to live.