The Times of Harvey Milk, if made today, would undoubtedly be a bit flashier, as the documentary style it employs has since been diluted by "A&E Biography." Fortunately, the film does not dwell on the boring details of Milk's formative years, instead, just offering a few lines about his childhood before diving into Milk's personal reinvention in San Francisco as an out-and-proud small businessman with ambitions toward public office. I'm sure that many people reflexively pass on watching this film when they see it's narrated by Harvey Fierstein, since a gay-themed documentary narrated by Harvey Fierstein is at once so obvious and so 80s. But this isn't a "gay" movie as much as a powerful illustration of community politics, how one person can make a major impact, and how disparate people are galvanized by events much bigger than they are. Though Milk's biography is certainly interesting in itself, the first half of the film merely sets the stage for some of the most incredible human drama I've ever encountered. Milk's awareness that his hard-earned ascension into a position of power made him a target for assassination is revealed on a tape he recorded for his will, and it makes his bravery seem almost superhuman. He knew he would die fighting the good fight. Yet it's inconceivable that he could have predicted how it actually went down. Milk's tale intersects with that of Dan White, a sort of benign conservative politico reminiscent of Dan Quayle, but much less on top of his game. Faced with financial pressures, he abruptly quit his councilman seat, but a few days later wanted to rescind his resignation. Mayor George Moscone, advised in part by Milk, declined to reinstate him, since White's absence left an opening for the liberal coalition Moscone and Co. sought to assemble. White, out of a desperation so intense it's almost easy to sympathize with, headed down to City Hall and shot the both of them dead. This twist is itself enormously thought-provoking, but the plot thickens even more when White goes to trial and escapes with the lightest possible sentence (he ended up serving only a few years in prison). The outrageousness of White's sentence is tough to contend with even now, and hardly feels much better if you know that White ended up killing himself. The eloquence of this film comes not from the facts of the matter, which are interesting and important but ultimately not much different from an "Investigative Reports" kind of thing, but from the coverage of the community's reactions to the killings and the trial. After Milk and Moscone are killed, a silent vigil is held entailing thousands of people holding candles in front of City Hall and well beyond, into the various adjacent neighborhoods. It is as moving and peaceful as the commemoration could have been, and right in line with Milk's gracious spirit. After White's trial, the undercurrent of anger explodes into violence, and the protest we see (as with everything here, documented in amazing local-news footage) is the exact opposite of the candlelight vigil. Yet it seems equally righteous. The film is fleshed out by a handful of well-selected talking heads, all of whom knew Milk in different capacities, all of whom represent different points of view: the Chinese businessman who saw Milk as a brilliant community leader; the gay teacher who found personal validation in Milk's warm, unjudgmental manner; the lesbian activist who worked with Milk to help defeat an anti-gay legislative proposal; the working-class straight-guy union member whose tolerance widened as a direct result of knowing Harvey and recognizing his integrity. These narratives create an emotional layer to the film that allows TTOHM to work on a global level as well as a personal one. It's just a beautiful film, well deserving of its Best Documentary Oscar™ I was so profoundly affected by The Times of Harvey Milk that I didn't even really care that the Academy completely ignored my 1984 documentary, Karma Chameleon: One Fan's Opinion About Culture Club's Awesomest Video. Perhaps I should have edited it down from six hours.
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