Milk

If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door. ~Harvey Milk

Do people still get angry? When was the last time a civil rights march made the news? Prop 8/gay marriage comes to mind as perhaps the latest civil rights issue to actually make people give a damn, but even that seems to have faded from public consciousness. Has American society become so apathetic that we have seen the end of peaceful protest and civil disobedience?

While watching Milk, these questions kept popping up in my head, and I couldn't help but think about the timeliness of the movie and compare what happened in 1970s San Francisco to what, it seems, is no longer happening in our current society. Where is the outrage over injustice? Where is there such solidarity of community? Not even specifically the gay community, but any underserved or marginalized community at all? Who is fighting anymore, at least so publicly?

Though apathetic's a pathetic way to be, I don't blame the public. I don't blame people for forgetting about these social justice issues in the wake of corporate greed, economic collapse, and - though many people have probably also forgotten about it as well - war. (Six years now. I admit it: most days, I don't think for a second about Iraq and Afghanistan.) I don't actually think there's anyone or any one thing to pinpoint to blame. You can't fault people for having their own priorities or interests, even if they don't jibe with your own. You can guilt-trip them all you want, but at the end of the day, people will care about what they want to care about.

And I can't pretend and be all holier-than-thou: I am just as guilty of being apathetic, of being uninformed. I've never attended any kind of rally (pep rallies notwithstanding), never marched on Washington (or anywhere else), never done anything active for any organization or cause. Sure, I've donated money, raised money, signed petitions, volunteered time or whatever, but never have I even raised my voice for a cause I cared about. (Okay, I'm not going to count my mad pimping of TFA all over Penn State, mostly because it's a cause within a job.)

I remember hearing about the Million Men March as a kid, and then the Million Mom March. Regardless of whether a million actually turned out for these events, that they even were conceived and publicized and well-attended is impressive - and a sign, perhaps, of how much things have changed since. But even those were very well-organized and meticulously planned. One thing I liked most about Milk, and obviously the true-life events upon which it was based, was the organic sort of uprising that took place when The Castro showed its displeasure over anti-gay measures - no media machines, no PR reps, just simple, effective community organization and word-of-mouth for the most part. I wonder if those spontaneous post-election displays of anger and protest are still possible today. (Maybe we would have seen it had Obama lost?)

The most surprising part of Milk was the openness of the gay people it depicted. In 1970s San Francisco, it seemed like so many people were out and proud, and I don't even see that today, but certainly geography and local culture plays a huge part. San Francisco is not State College is not Allentown. I also think that it's almost to the detriment of the gay rights movement that homosexuality can be closeted. Ethnicity, for example, is usually something that manifests itself in appearance, whether it's skin color, hair color, or facial features, and no one can hide it. And so that contributes to just a greater awareness, I suppose, among ethnic minorities of being different, whereas while I'm sure gay people are aware of being different, they have the option of blending in as much or as little as they want.

The worst thing about Milk, though not a negative thing at all, was definitely how the characters and the storyline drew me in, despite how I knew all the while the sad way it was going to end. (Spoiler alert: Harvey Milk was assassinated.) Also, I have never really been able to separate Sean Penn from his character in I Am Sam. Like, I expect all his characters to have the same quirks and diminished mental capacity as Sam. I think I half-expect Sean Penn himself to be Sam, which I guess is a testament to how good he was in that film.

Slumdog Millionaire remains my favorite movie I've seen this year, but as much as I loved its bright, energetic style and somewhat feel-good story, it didn't have the depth of Milk and now seems rather frivolous in comparison. I definitely recommend watching Milk, or at the very least, the Oscar acceptance speech by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. A very moving one-and-a-half minutes that really captures the importance and influence of the film.