Ghostlight Monday: Milk--film at the multiplex

What exactly is a plex and do you need more than two to make it a multiplex? My grandmother lived in a duplex for a while, did she show films there?

Anyway, I shelled out my 9 dollars to sit in a crowded but incredibly quiet movie theater to see the latest gay-themed film making the circuit. Gay films are notoriously bad, but I always like to see them in the theater, because you never know when you might get lucky--I mean with the quality of the film, of course.

Well, I got very lucky with Milk.

This is much less a gay film than it is a political film. Yes, all the primary characters are gay men (and one token gay woman), but the struggles of these characters are more about how to organize themselves and others to their cause. And therein lies the strength of the film. This is a universal theme; we've seen a version of this story in films about Black civil rights, Gandhi, Mexicans, Cubans, the Irish, Suffragettes (which has to be the most sexist way to refer to someone struggling for political power), labor unions, Canadians, disabled people, even cartoon animals, so why not the gays?

Rather than that universality hurting the cause, it helps this movie and--one hopes--the appreciation for the struggles of all special interest groups seeking equal rights under the promise of "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Milk

Film release of 2008
Directed by Gus van Sant
Cast: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emil Hirsch, James Franco