Quick Reviews - Milk, Doubt

Milk
Good movie. Although, it did take about a third of the movie until I really got into it. I'm also not a huge Sean Penn fan - something about him just annoys me. However, he did a good job stepping into the role of Harvey Milk, such that I no longer thought I was watching Sean Penn on screen blabbing, but rather witnessing an important civil rights movement. It's really quite amazing what occurred in San Francisco, just across the bridge, thirty years ago. I'll even see the Moscone Center in a new light.

Er... (minor) spoilers ahead I guess.

It's sad that thirty years later, there's still a struggle to preserve gay rights. In 1978 Harvey Milk fought against Proposition 6, which would make the firing of gay schoolteachers mandatory, and won, and yet Proposition 8 passed in California last year. Okay, sure, Proposition 6 was probably much more egregious. On the other hand, Proposition 8, whether it passed or not, wouldn't affect non gays at all, so why did over 50% of the population seek to pass it?

End spoilers.

Makes me wonder, if Milk (the movie) would have had any impact on the election, had it been released before it. Would it have helped or hurt the cause? Why wasn't it released before the election? Not close enough to Oscar season? Or were the filmmakers afraid it would have a negative impact on the fight to preserve gay marriage? Anyway, it was interesting watching this movie in light of Proposition 8 have just been passed a few months ago.

Doubt
Didn't feel like making a separate post. Liked the movie. Like Amy Adams. Possibly my favorite actress ever since I watched Junebug.