Mountain GLBTQ Group

It looks like this movie will come out in November 2008.

Guess who is playing Milk? Sean Penn

Dan White? Josh Brolin

George Moscone? Victor Garber

I own this video,(The Times of Harvey Milk) but rented the dvd via netflix to see if it had better color and sound. I also rented the extras which is on a whole other disc. (My vacation up north with a foray into San Francisco for my birthday got me thinking of Moscone, Milk)

I recommend renting the 'extras' if you haven't seen it before. There is a cool speech given by Feinstein on the 1 year anniversery of Moscone and Milk's death, along with speeches given by one of Moscone's sons and Milk's nephew (who is gay). There are many forum discussions as well on it...one was on Dan White and had his lawyers talking about the case.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088275/

Those scenes with all the people holding candles and walking on Market st, still chokes me up. That music (which is discussed on the extras) is so beautiful. The composer was an unknown at the time and had the music recorded in some funky garage and studio.

I have difficulty imagining Sean Penn as Milk, being that Milk was such a smiling and personable guy and Penn tends to hold his emotions in check...so I am curious to see if Penn will be able to get Milk's joy of life across in the upcoming movie. And if the movie includes the candle lit walk heading to City Hall. It would have to I would think!

To answer my own question...

Interesting article
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article...

The public will also have a chance to appear in the movie as the film crew is seeking people over the age of 18 for several marches they will be recreating in February. Filming will take place from 7 p.m. to midnight Monday, February 4 at Castro and Market streets and from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday, February 8 at Market and Franklin.

Btw, I read AWG's comments in the Christian forum which referred to the Briggs Initiative which would have banned gays and lesbians from working in California's public schools if it had passed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Briggs_Initiative

Hurting from these losses, the gay and lesbian community got organized. A huge coalition of predominantly progressive grassroots activists, led by out gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk under the slogan "come out! come out! wherever you are!", mobilized to defeat the Initiative. Throughout the state, gay men and lesbians went door to door in their cities and towns to talk about the harm the initiative would cause. They came out to their families and their neighbors and their co-workers, spoke in their churches and community centers, sent letters to their local editors, and otherwise revealed to the general population that gay people really were "everywhere" and included people they already knew and cared about. For a time the ballot measure was ahead in public-opinion polls, with about 61% of voters supporting it while 31% opposed it -- a week before the election. The movement against it succeeded little in shifting public opinion, even though major organizations and ecclesiastical groups opposed it. Then former-governor Ronald Reagan a week before the election announced his opposition, and the anticipated landslide for the initiative became a landslide against the initiative, loosing even in Orange Country, in the largest shift of public opinion ever recorded within such a short time frame.

There is a hysterical debate between Milk and Briggs within this documentary. Milk made Briggs look very, very bad.

Wow, you can see the whole documentary on youtube

This is part 7

The candle lit march
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGqi8QGRWAs&feature=re...

Hey, Castine,
How ya doin? Glad to posted all of this. This should be a great movie. As you probably know, I was really concerned about the Briggs initiative, being a teacher at the time, and pretty much out to my faculty. This whole time was pretty nuts with the slaying of Milk and Moscone. A very sad time in our history. We met Harvey at a conference in L.A. at the Bonaventure hotel. He was, as you said, a truly upbeat guy and so available. He had no pretense at all. He just was who he was. It will be interesting to see if Sean Penn pulls it off. I know what you mean about his personality but he is a dedicated actor and will probably watch lots of footage of Harvey to help him with this role.

but he is a dedicated actor and will probably watch lots of footage of Harvey to help him with this role.

I was talking to my oldest son about this yesterday...all of this happened 30 years ago so many people actually remember Harvey Milk, so it will be interesting to see if Penn gets that 'upbeatness' factor across. I would think that this would be more important than trying to convey him physically, which would be nearly impossible to do! I remember reading that Denzel Washington had worried about portraying Malcolm X authentically enough that people who had been there wouldn't find fault with his performance. I thought he did, but didn't think that Will Smith had quite captured Muhammad Ali. Who knows what people who actually lived at the time would say about Giamattis portrayal of John Adams?! Either way, I will be really interested in seeing this movie!

You met him..wow! He was only in office for 11 months, so that is pretty remarkable.