The Mayor of Castro Street finally gets his Hollywood close-up

Every biopic is saddled with the oxymoronic task of surprising audiences with a story they already know. This problem is particularly acute with Milk, Gun Van Sant’s long-gestating film biography of slain gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, whose story has not only been documented in news reports and history books but already fueled a classic film—The Times of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein’s 1984 Oscar-winning documentary, which captures the man and his era impeccably and continues to rank among the greatest documentaries ever made.

Now comes the Hollywood version, which re-tells the amazing Harvey Milk story with the help of fastidious production design and an A-list cast. The story, for those who don’t know or can’t remember: In the early 1970s, 40-year-old Harvey Milk ditched his closeted Wall Street life for San Francisco, where he opened a camera shop, began organizing the Castro’s gay community and started a career in politics. In 1977, Milk was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay person elected to political office anywhere ever—a burst of glory that lasted until 1978, when Milk became the first openly gay politician slain by a psychotic political peer, falling victim (along with Mayor George Moscone) to the fatal gunfire of former city supervisor Dan White.

The basics of the Milk saga—the triumph and tragedy, if you will—cement the story’s historical importance. But it’s the weird little details that make it fascinating. Wisely, Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black draws the richest stuff from both the aforementioned documentary (gay-rights bigot Anita Bryant plays herself via newsreel footage) and Randy Shilts’s classic Milk biography The Mayor of Castro Street, which enables Black to flesh out the film’s somewhat programmatic march through Milk’s Greatest Hits with odd and telling idiosyncrasies that bring the whole story to life once again.

As always, major props must go to Milk the man, the gay late bloomer who became a political force, and whose potboiler of a life is packed with enough gay drama, political intrigue and true crime to fuel one of Milk’s beloved operas. As for the living artists behind Milk, they deserve props of their own. Working in his straightforward Hollywood mode, director Van Sant gets the job done and stays in the background, his presence felt most strongly in the film’s comfortably unabashed sexuality. (There’s tongue in the first five minutes.) But the lion’s share of credit for Milk’s success belongs to Sean Penn, the Hollywood movie star whose devotion to the film helped secure its production, and who gives a quietly amazing performance—simultaneously lived-in and spontaneous—that’s easily his best ever.

MILK DIR. GUS VAN SANT | RATED R | AT SELECT THEATERS IN LA | OPENS WED EVERYWHERE

Tags: Film, milk, Reviews, sean penn