History Film / Milk

* OscarBait

* WaistcoatOfStyle: Harvey

[[caption-width-right:300:"I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you!"]]

''Milk'' is a 2008 film that was directed by Creator/GusVanSant and stars Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/EmileHirsch, Creator/JamesFranco, and Creator/JoshBrolin.

Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces UsefulNotes/HarveyMilk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to ban gays and their supporters from public school jobs.

Milk was nominated for countless awards, and won 2 [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscars]] for original screenplay and lead actor, Penn's second win. It was also nominated for picture, director, and supporting actor (Brolin).

* AmbiguousDisorder: Jack. He's sweet-natured but unbalanced, showing some signs of attachment and abandonment issues and possibly PTSD as a result of his father beating him upon Jack's coming out as gay.

* EnterStageWindow: To avoid metal detectors and get his gun into City Hall, Dan White climbs through a basement window. This actually happened.

--> '''Harvey''': "I can't say it because I'm a public official, but if this thing passes, fight the hell back."

''Milk'' is a 2008 film, that was directed by Creator/GusVanSant and stars Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/EmileHirsch, Creator/JamesFranco, and Creator/JoshBrolin.

* DrivenToSuicide:
** Apparently an appalling number of Harvey's lovers [[spoiler: including Jack.]]
** In the what-happened-after epilogue, we learn that [[spoiler: White killed himself some years after being released from jail.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Harvey, not unlike his real-life counterpart was said to have been.
--> '''Dan White''': Can [[HomosexualReproduction two men reproduce]]?
--> '''Harvey''': No, but [[AllGaysArePromiscuous God knows we keep trying]]!

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: Harvey talks Paul, a disabled gay kid, out of killing himself before his parent send him off to a CureYourGays institution.

* SequelHook: While the title cards do sum up what happened with White being arrested and tried for the murders he committed and then eventually being DrivenToSuicide, a follow-up could have easily followed that more closely, as well as how Cleve Jones led the outraged protesters in the White Nights Riots as a result.

* BrokenBird: Jack has abandonment and attachment issues from his father beating him when he came out, which plague him throughout the film and [[spoiler:ultimately cause his suicide]]. Possibly Dan as well.

%%* BigBad: Dan is the closest thing there is to one as the film progresses, getting increasingly frustrated at Harvey.

%%* BrokenBird: Jack. Possibly Dan as well.

* DrivenToSuicide: Apparently an appalling number of Harvey's lovers [[spoiler: including Jack.]] In the what-happened-after epilogue, we learn that [[spoiler: White killed himself some years after being released from jail.]]

* TheSeventies

* ArmoredClosetGay: Harvey's take on Dan.
* BettyAndVeronica: With Harvey as Archie, Scott as Betty, and Jack as Veronica.
* {{Biopic}}
* BigBad: Dan is the closest thing there is to one as the film progresses, getting increasingly frustrated at Harvey.
* BittersweetEnding: Harvey is killed by Dan, but becomes a gay rights icon in the process.
* BrokenBird: Jack. Possibly Dan as well.

* ButNotTooGay: Completely subverted at the beginning of the film.
* CastFullOfGay: Justified due to the setting.

Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces UsefulNotesHarveyMilk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to ban gays and their supporters from public school jobs.

''Milk'' is a 2008 film, that was directed by Gus Van Sant and stars Creator/SeanPenn, Emile Hirsch, Creator/JamesFranco, and Creator/JoshBrolin.

Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to ban gays and their supporters from public school jobs.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted. The film provides a fairly wide tapestry of homosexual men. And if Milk had lived he'd be 80 in 2010.
** Also, he's already in his forties during the events of the film and often jokes about his age. He died at age 48.

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: Humorously referenced by Milk himself.
->'''White''': Can two men reproduce?
->'''Milk''': No, but God knows we keep trying.

--> '''Harvey''': No, but god knows we're trying!

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harvey-milk-sean-penn_2956.jpg]]