Documentary Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)


The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 4/22

HMilk
4/22: The name Harvey Milk wasn't familiar to me until recently despite having lived through the 80's, so I thought of checking out The Times of Harvey Milk to catch up.

One thing is for sure: the documentary does an excellent job of explaining Harvey Milk's political stances. There was one impactful scene when an Asian couple was stopped and the guy wanted to explain what's going on. Almost all documentaries touching on politics never do that, having always been about garnering support and winning elections.

Whether or not Harvey Milk was gay is irrelevant to me. If he represented his constituents exactly how they want to be, then that's the ball game. On the other hand, it's a tragedy that he and San Francisco's mayor George Moscone were assassinated by a fellow politician on November 27, 1978. Even worse is the fact that Dan White was found guilty of "manslaughter" and served only five years. Only a clean-cut, all-American white man would have it so good. He thankfully killed himself in 1985.

If there's anything I'm disappointed with, it still doesn't answer the question: why did Dan White do it? What an insensible thing to do. Then again, listening to him, he was full of contradictions. There's also the lack of analysis in hindsight. The other is not presenting enough substance or background info in regard to Harvey Milk. In reality, he only had the elected job for eleven months before the fateful day. If you look up the biography of Harvey Milk, it's clear the documentary is missing a lot of stuff. There are several instances of what the interviewees were saying that didn't make sense.

Playing the "what if?" game, I wonder how Harvey Milk would've handled the AIDS crisis had he lived. The most controversial topic during that time was the operation of bathhouses. Would he have voted to keep them closed? In my opinion, I say he'll do it. By the way, it's the first time I saw Bill Kraus in the flesh, having read And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. A central figure of the book, Bill played a big part in San Francisco politics during the late 70's and the early 80's. Diagnosed in 1984, he died two years afterwards from complications of AIDS.

By the way, here's an interesting tidbit: Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor of Charles Manson and his Family, was asked by Dan White's friends from the San Francisco police department to defend him, but he refused to, not wanting this on his conscience. He left the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in '72, switching to the other side. Cases which involved the truly innocent who were accused of serious crimes only interested him.

All in all, The Times of Harvey Milk is an excellent historical piece of work but can use more substance.