Film Review: LGBTQ Rights and Harvey Milk in American Cinema

This report offers a detailed film review of the movie Milk (2008), focusing on its depiction of LGBTQ rights and the life of Harvey Milk, a pioneering gay rights activist. The review highlights the film's portrayal of the struggles faced by the LGBTQ community in the 1970s, including the oppression and discrimination they endured, and the political battles fought to gain recognition and acceptance. The analysis emphasizes Sean Penn's performance as Harvey Milk, showcasing his persistence and the historical context of the activism. Furthermore, the report references the film's impact on the understanding and advocacy of LGBTQ rights, and its importance in American cinema. The review also provides insights into the film's narrative, the political climate of the time, and the tragic events surrounding Harvey Milk's assassination.

Running Head: FILM REVIEW – LGBTQ RIGHTS
Film Review – LGBTQ Rights
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Author Note

1FILM REVIEW – LGBTQ RIGHTS
The topic of lesbian and gay rights as well as the rights of transgender or queer people is
one that has captivated film makers and producers for quite some time now. Lesbian and gay
rights are now the focus of every liberal government, and film makers have had a vital role to
play in highlighting the importance of such rights, and demanding the recognition of such rights
by all sections of society (Bullough, 2014). This essay analyzes the movie, Milk Man (2008) that
captures the life of a gay rights activist and the causes that he fought for. The essay concludes
that LGBTQ rights should always be taken cognizance of and respected in every part of the
world.
The movie Milk (2008) is based on the life of Harvey Milk who became the very first gay
politician and LGBTQ rights activist in America to be elected to public office. The role of
Harvey Milk is played by the actor Sean Penn, and the movie highlights the struggle that Harvey
Milk had to go through, from being a devoted man who was committed to changing America
through political agitation in the 1950’s and the 1960’’s to the secret life that he led as a gay
man. The movie does a successful job of showing how oppressive it was for members of the
LGBTQ community to openly express their feelings and to live transparently as homo-sexual or
queer people by showcasing how the police in America at that time would raid gay bars and
clubs and bring these to a halt (Levy & Levy, 2017). What the law and order unit in America
implied through such crackdowns, was of course the fact that being gay and living a gay life was
a criminal offence and that it was not to be encouraged at any costs, but frowned upon instead
(Carbado, 2017).
The movie Milk does a great job as well of highlighting the political struggle that Harvey
Milk went through in the decade of the 1970’s in order to legitimize his identity and show
America and the world that it was alright for a queer man to be holding a public office. Sean

2FILM REVIEW – LGBTQ RIGHTS
Penn is superlative in demonstrating the persistence that was shown by his character Harvey
Milk, after the failure of his political campaigns in both 1973 and 1975, and how Milk and his
lover Smith took the impulsive decision to move base to San Francisco in the hope that their love
and identity would be better accepted by the people there. The movie shows how triumphant
Milk is when he and his allies succeed in protesting against Proposition 6 and concludes with the
unfortunate incident of the assassination of Harvey Milk on the 27th of November 1978. The
movie reveals that Milk had long known that the person who assassinates him at the very end, a
man by the name of White, was a closeted gay and that he was afraid to come out about his
sexuality in the open (Cruikshank, 2014).
Milk (2008), is by far one of the best films to have been made in the history of American
cinema on the subject of gay rights. The movie aptly points out the struggles that gay and lesbian
people go through in order to get themselves accepted by society and how these struggles are
magnified when contending for important positions in the polity or legislature of a country.

3FILM REVIEW – LGBTQ RIGHTS
References
Bullough, V. L. (2014). Before stonewall: Activists for gay and lesbian rights in historical
context. Routledge.
Carbado, D. W. (2017). Black rights, gay rights, civil rights. InSexuality and Equality Law (pp.
305-328). Routledge.
Cruikshank, M. (2014). The gay and lesbian liberation movement. Routledge.
Levy, B. L., & Levy, D. L. (2017). When love meets hate: The relationship between state
policies on gay and lesbian rights and hate crime incidence. Social science research, 61,
142-159.