Milk at the Mayan Theater

Kate and I decided to see Milk at Denver's Mayan Theater. The Mayan was built in a Art Deco Mayan Revival style. It features one large screen downstairs and two compact rooms upstairs. The seating was tight in our theater, and I presume it is the same in the adjacent room. Kate and I poked our heads in to view the the larger screen and theater as Doubt played. We couldn't see much, unfortunately, but in the dark it somewhat reminded me of Chicago's Music Box.

Besides a pleasing experience at the Mayan, we were treated to a fantastic performance by Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in Milk. I'm not going to bother with a plot summary, but the writing and Penn's acting were superb. Milk's driving and charismatic nature are positioned next to his keen understanding of politics and desire to harness the levers of politics. At one point, San Francisco's mayor, George Moscone (played well by Victor Garber, one of the leads in the canceled TV show Eli Stone), informs Milk that his comments are akin to those of Boss Tweed or Mayor Richard J. Daley. So while the representation is mostly positive, Van Sant and Penn established a dual nature for Milk that avoids simplistic celebration as he grappled with the difficult task of grappling with advancing a gay rights agenda. For instance, at one point, the film forces the audience to confront Milk's hypocritical stance on coming out to his parents and his demands that his closest supporters announce their sexuality.

One of the more fascinating elements that I drew from the film were the scenes of protest in the Castro. It was neat to juxtapose those with the recent ones after the win for proposition eight and its backers, including the Mormon Church which bankrolled some of its advocates. In fact, one cannot help but situate the echoes of the past to the claims and calumny of the present. Certainly that was planned, but the execution was powerful.