The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Spencer S

  
  Having seen Milk before watching this; the first film to win Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, I was already ingratiated to the image and personality of the first openly gay politician in American history. Penn paints a picture of a working Joe, staunchly oppressed by the… More
  Having seen Milk before watching this; the first film to win Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, I was already ingratiated to the image and personality of the first openly gay politician in American history. Penn paints a picture of a working Joe, staunchly oppressed by the political standards towards sexuality in his early days as a Wall Street broker, his relationships and personal life on display as a way to show his human side to a general audience. This documentary focuses on Milk's aspirations as a leader and less on his life outside of that world. The documentary also doesn't quite showcase the role of Anita Bryant in Prop 6, instead showing a lot of archived footage from newscasts and interviews with Briggs. We're given a small view of Milk, painting him as a responsible and justified politician, and not this multi-sided, intensely savage and yet peacemaker icon, his death more of a sacrilege than an assassination. The brutality of his death and the imagery of the candlelit march resonant better than a filmed sequence of events like in Milk. This is a tale of human rights being exemplified in the Castro district of San Francisco. This is about hatred, chaos, revenge, anarchy, the final resolution between the different peoples of the large scale cityscape, and the fact that discrimination reaches between race, sexual orientation, the disabled, and elderly, and it's all fear turned in on itself. Scary to watch, especially towards the end, if you're not crying or welled with emotion, there is something missing from your movie watching experience.

• _kelly .

  
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• jay n

  
  wonderful doc profiling someone who wanted to make a difference and the sad miscarriage of justice that followed his slaying.

• Laura C

  
  An excellent documentary. Very detailed look at Harvey Milk the man and the politician. I felt his life was celebrated, as it should be, without setting him up to be a saint or martyr, which really could have easily been the case. A really interesting look into an especially… More
  An excellent documentary. Very detailed look at Harvey Milk the man and the politician. I felt his life was celebrated, as it should be, without setting him up to be a saint or martyr, which really could have easily been the case. A really interesting look into an especially significant period in the gay rights movement, politics in general as well as the justice system in San Francisco. Dan White, the man who shot Harvey isn't painted him as a villan nor are his actions excused and the result is an incredibly fascinating look at a mentally disturbed man, who on the surface couldn't have appeared more average. I was very impressed with the array of news footage and home videos the filmmakers uncovered. This film really made me wonder why the gay rights movement isn't part of the history curriculum, just incredibly shortsighted to exclude it.

• Remi L

  
  Its amazing that such a groundbreaking time in American history has been virtually ignored by the public and media. Then again, it involves the history of gay civil rights, so I shouldn't be surprised. The only reason I had ever even heard of Harvey Milk was because of the Sean… More
  Its amazing that such a groundbreaking time in American history has been virtually ignored by the public and media. Then again, it involves the history of gay civil rights, so I shouldn't be surprised. The only reason I had ever even heard of Harvey Milk was because of the Sean Penn biopic that came out recently. This documentary chronicles the life and career of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's openly gay city supervisor who was, of course, assassinated because his very existence rattled the status quo in the 70s. Watching this doc made me feel like a window had been opened into this man's life through the people he befriended during his political career. I was also fascinated by San Francisco and California before my own existence. While I enjoyed the Sean Penn film, I feel like it should be accompanied by this film. I definitely recommend if you're a fan of civil rights documentaries or are just interested in learning about a little piece of California history.

• Sunil J

  
  An awesome documentary that does an amazing job of sucking you into it's web. It's hard to not find Harvey Milk a very lovable man of the people.

• Jared H

  
  A gripping documentary about a rising political star whose life ended in tragedy. I wish it was more balanced with the interviews though. There was a trial and the verdict was depicted as unjust, and the only opinions the film gave were those of Milk's closest friends (who, of… More
  A gripping documentary about a rising political star whose life ended in tragedy. I wish it was more balanced with the interviews though. There was a trial and the verdict was depicted as unjust, and the only opinions the film gave were those of Milk's closest friends (who, of course, would view the verdict as unjust). I was interested in the motives and the defense's argument of Dan White (the killer), but it didn't elaborate much on that. It's an interesting watch though.

• Wu C

  
  Won best documentary Oscar in 1984 and rightfully so. This tells the story of a man who helped change the rules for gay rights in America. A nice slice of some political history.

Read all 8 featured audience ratings