The Times of Harvey Milk (Documentary)

Even if you've already seen the Sean Penn film, this 1984 documentary about Harvey Milk hits differently. When I found out it had won the Oscar for Best Documentary that year, I was curious to see what it covered and how much of it might have actually fed into the feature film we all know. Watching it now, it feels like so many things at once, a piece of archive history, a political case study, a study of a city, and something genuinely emotional to sit through.

The filmmaker builds this really vivid picture of Harvey Milk by weaving together old stock footage with interviews recorded nearly a decade after his assassination, and by the time it's done you walk away with a deep admiration for the man and everything he managed to do. Milk worked under San Francisco mayor George Moscone on a city supervisory board that was headed by Dianne Feinstein, and he wasn't just fighting for gay rights, he was speaking up for everyone who felt left out of the system. We get a look at his earlier adult life too, how he set up a camera shop with his partner, ran for office and lost three times before finally breaking into California politics. When he did win, it wasn't just because of the gay and lesbian vote. He was smart enough to pull together ethnic and racialized communities, unions, trade groups and other outsiders who had never before seen themselves on the same side as gay rights activists. That coalition building was genuinely ahead of its time. And then within a year of getting elected, both he and Mayor Moscone were shot and killed by fellow supervisor Dan White, the most conservative member of the board.

The film very much wants you to see Milk as a martyr and honestly, he was one. He even recorded his own will on tape because he felt his assassination was a real possibility. The story of what followed is almost as infuriating as the killing itself. White shot Milk five times, including once in the head, and was found guilty only of voluntary manslaughter, serving just five and a half years before being released. That verdict sent people into the streets. What I think makes this documentary so effective is that it was clearly made for everybody, not just gay audiences, not just San Franciscans, not just political junkies. It opens itself up and lets you genuinely feel how this one man changed the lives of the people around him, including in a strange way the life of the man who killed him. The filmmaker actually gives Dan White a surprising amount of context without ever excusing what he did. He makes sure you understand that White had spent his whole life in public service, gave up a stable job as a fireman for a poorly paid supervisor role and then quit out of frustration. None of that justifies anything, and the filmmaker's disgust at the lenient sentence White received is impossible to miss.

The interviews with people who knew Milk personally are what really stick with you. They're thoughtful, honest and give you a real sense of both the man and the moment in history he represented. (7/10)