The Times Of Harvey Milk (Documentary)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B+ Film: B+
Though the actual documentary does not consider this,
Harvey Milk tells a great American story about how no matter how great a
triumph, something evil out there in The United States has to come forward,
destroy it and get away with it. In this
case, kill Milk and do whatever is necessary to stop people from having civil
rights and happiness. The Robert Epstein-directed/Richard
Schmiechen-produced The Times Of Harvey
Milk (1984) is a haunting reminder of this ugly truth, compounded by the
fact that what the man did accomplish is being washed away by time and the
shallow mainstreaming of “commodified” Gays in the current mainstream media
with no point of view about anything that really matters.
In a dark
way, the gunshot assassination of Milk was the starting gun on an
ultra-aggressive assault on Gays and Lesbians like nothing since the 1960s by a
disturbingly energized Religious Right. It
was a bad, ugly omen to come and is only the top of a long list of items they
have gotten away with to date, from murder, to abortion clinic bombings, to
assaults on Civil Rights. So confident
in themselves, these extremely well-organized extremists laugh at press like
this, celebrating their dark victories.
The Times Of Harvey Milk captures the achievements that a
“lone nut” killing could not squash, and this new special edition DVD set adds
a very ample amount of extras to keep the material current. Harvey Fierstein narrates the story, starting
with the announcement of the murder, followed by a brief, effective explanation
of his birth and growth. The majority
covers his time of living openly about his sexuality, not a common thing then,
and how he did what he could to make the life of himself and others around him
(regardless of sexuality) in San Francisco.
This was the future ahead of its time, but fellow-councilman Dan White
could not handle that, and some amazing temper tantrums and strange actions
that should have been red alerts were not recognized. White would take Milk’s life.
The full
frame image has been remarkably restored in 35mm by the great UCLA Film &
Television Archives (see the MPI Sherlock Holmes films elsewhere on this site)
and it is only limited by the DVDs definition and the varying nature of
Documentaries. The colors are terrific
and this is a new model for film restoration in this category. Cinematographer Frances Reid deserves special
credit with what was an amazing use of 16mm stocks of the time. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo actually has
some faint Pro Logic surrounds, despite being a simple sound release without
Dolby or Ultra Stereo analog theatrical sound of any kind. Composer Mark Isham once again proves he is
at his challenging material. Extras
include a powerful commentary track by Epstein, editor Deborah Hoffmann & photographer
Daniel Nicolotta on DVD 1, while DVD 2 gives us Harvey Speaks Out clips section (2:40) where he expresses various
reactions to various political moments in various clips, the filmmaker’s
winning moment at the 1985 Academy Awards (3:02), the premiere at San
Francisco’s Castro Theater (7:33), Epstein and Tom Ammiano giving a talk at the
Los Angeles location of the Director’s Guild (16:06), an update on killer Dan
White shows how ignorant and pathetic he was in the first place though some
very revealing clips about him from news clips (3:58), an alternate ending that
shows what the film could look like unrestored (2:40), Diane Feinstein’s
statement on the First Anniversary of the murders (3:14), stills, the original
theatrical trailer, and a 25th Anniversary section.
This
section is split up into sections. The
Dan White case is revisited as prosecutors dare to argue that Milk’s sexuality
had nothing to do with his death (46:48), Milk successor Harry Britt speaks (9:47),
as well as George Moscone son Chris Moscone (6:55) Harvey Milk’s nephew Stuart
Milk (5:46) and a candlelight vigil.
The film
is a classic of its kind, but it has a few problems that are too late to fix, but
they are minor. I will leave it to
viewers to find out from this set. The
counterpoint of the Dan White revisit will disturb some viewers, but no one can
accuse the DVD set of not being fair and balanced. The most important thing is that The Times Of Harvey Milk gets better
with age and finally has a DVD release worthy of the film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
