My husband and I had the great luck to get tickets to the premiere of the film “MILK” at a packed Castro Theater last month. The film is directed by Gus Van Sant, stars Sean Penn (as Harvey Milk) and was produced by Focus Features (producers of “Brokeback Mountain”) so we went in thinking that it wasn’t going to be a waste of two hours… and we were right.

The film chronicles the story of Harvey Milk who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in America. Milk was murdered by Dan White in 1978.

The film focuses on the last eight years of Harvey’s life. It opens with with Milk picking up Scott Smith (James Franco), the man who would become his partner. It is the eve of Milk’s 40th birthday and he is living in New York. Shortly thereafter Milk and Smith relocate to San Francisco where Harvey begins his journey as a neighborhood activist and ultimately the first gay politician.

I felt like I went into the film knowing a lot about Harvey Milk. I had seen “The Times of Harvey Milk” and countless other documentaries about the gay movement that included his story, but I’ve never seen a movie with such an intimate and heartfelt look into his life.

I must admit that I was more than a little dubious when I heard that Sean Penn was going to play the role. Don’t get me wrong, I really love Sean Penn as an actor, but I really didn’t see him in this part. Well the reality is, Penn channels Milk. His passion and sensitivity in the role are amazing. Other great performances are put in by the studly young Emile Hirsch (playing Cleve Jones) and Josh Brolin (as Dan White).

I think the timing of this movie is significant on a couple of levels. One of the themes of the movie is Milk’s battle against Proposition 6, which threatened to remove all gay and lesbian school teachers and anyone who supported them from teaching in California schools. The similarity between this battle and what we’re going through with Prop 8 is striking.

In addition, I think it’s important to convey more of our history to the younger gay generations. I’m amazed when I talk to twenty-somethings (listen to me, I’m only thirty-something) that they often don’t know who Harvey Milk was. Because of the weight of the director, the stars and the production company, I’m hoping that this will manage to get before many eyes that don’t know much of Milk’s story. These are times of change and it’s wonderful to look to a revolutionary hero from our past for inspiration. In Milk’s own words, “You gotta give ‘em hope”. Watching it made me realize what a timely story it is, and it gave me more than a little hope for the future.

The film opens in theaters on November 26th.
All photos from Focus Features.

Watch the preview-