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I MUST see this!
Oct. 16th, 2008 10:51 amSean Penn plays Harvey Milk.
This is one of those fascinating, only-in-the-'70s, histories to which I am always drawn. I first became interested in Harvey Milk's story back in Virginia when Ryan and I lived together--he and I (and Tracie) were called in to audition at the Source Theatre (I think it was the Source) for a musical about Milk's life and death. Tracie and I were both called back for a fictional role, a radical lesbian named Heather (she got it--Ryan was also cast). I knew the guy who played Dan White as well, so I went to see it. The show itself was not that great but the performances were terrific (the guy who played Milk--watching him was like taking a workshop in how to make bad dialogue work).
When I was called in, I did a lot of research about the man, and then later I saw a documentary about Milk. The story is fascinating. Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the country, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. And even he probably would not have been elected if they hadn't changed their election procedures so that supervisors were chosen by their district instead of running at-large--basically, the gay district elected him. Dan White, a much more conservative, meat-and-potatoes, "traditional values" kind of guy, was also on the Board. George Moscone was the mayor, and he and Milk were much closer politically. White and Milk used to tangle on issues, and finally White got fed up and quit. His little reactionary cronies convinced him to rejoin--he tried to but George Moscone said "sorry, you can't rejoin once you've resigned." A couple of days later White shows up at City Hall with a gun, climbs through the window to avoid the metal detectors, goes upstairs and murders Moscone, reloads, goes downstairs and murders Milk. He shot them both in the head.
The murders kick-started Dianne Feinstein's political career--she became Acting Mayor and announced to the press what had happened (look it up on YouTube, it's famous footage, she's trembling and people are crying out). White of course got what was basically a slap on the wrist--a 7-year sentence (which ended up being 5 years) for TWO MURDERS. His lawyer argued "diminished capacity" (this turned into what was called the Twinkie defense--what most people think it means is that the junk food binge caused him to snap and murder--what the lawyer was arguing was that the junk food binge was an indicator of diminished capacity, because White was normally a fitness freak). Manslaughter of any kind is complete bullshit--the man climbed in through the window to avoid the metal detectors, and RELOADED. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew. But like those psychos that are yelling out at McCain's rallies, he didn't care. He chose hate over finding a common ground. Because God forbid he lose at something--God forbid he might actually have to give ground, and show humility, and admit he was wrong. No, he preferred to murder over actually joining together with his fellow human being and working together as part of a community.
And to make the story even more powerful, news of the Jonestown tragedy had just broken. Many of the dead at Jonestown were from San Francisco--that's where the People's Temple had been before they relocated to Guyana. There was a dark cloud hanging over the city of San Francisco in November of 1978--some very dark energy.
This is one of those fascinating, only-in-the-'70s, histories to which I am always drawn. I first became interested in Harvey Milk's story back in Virginia when Ryan and I lived together--he and I (and Tracie) were called in to audition at the Source Theatre (I think it was the Source) for a musical about Milk's life and death. Tracie and I were both called back for a fictional role, a radical lesbian named Heather (she got it--Ryan was also cast). I knew the guy who played Dan White as well, so I went to see it. The show itself was not that great but the performances were terrific (the guy who played Milk--watching him was like taking a workshop in how to make bad dialogue work).
When I was called in, I did a lot of research about the man, and then later I saw a documentary about Milk. The story is fascinating. Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the country, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. And even he probably would not have been elected if they hadn't changed their election procedures so that supervisors were chosen by their district instead of running at-large--basically, the gay district elected him. Dan White, a much more conservative, meat-and-potatoes, "traditional values" kind of guy, was also on the Board. George Moscone was the mayor, and he and Milk were much closer politically. White and Milk used to tangle on issues, and finally White got fed up and quit. His little reactionary cronies convinced him to rejoin--he tried to but George Moscone said "sorry, you can't rejoin once you've resigned." A couple of days later White shows up at City Hall with a gun, climbs through the window to avoid the metal detectors, goes upstairs and murders Moscone, reloads, goes downstairs and murders Milk. He shot them both in the head.
The murders kick-started Dianne Feinstein's political career--she became Acting Mayor and announced to the press what had happened (look it up on YouTube, it's famous footage, she's trembling and people are crying out). White of course got what was basically a slap on the wrist--a 7-year sentence (which ended up being 5 years) for TWO MURDERS. His lawyer argued "diminished capacity" (this turned into what was called the Twinkie defense--what most people think it means is that the junk food binge caused him to snap and murder--what the lawyer was arguing was that the junk food binge was an indicator of diminished capacity, because White was normally a fitness freak). Manslaughter of any kind is complete bullshit--the man climbed in through the window to avoid the metal detectors, and RELOADED. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew. But like those psychos that are yelling out at McCain's rallies, he didn't care. He chose hate over finding a common ground. Because God forbid he lose at something--God forbid he might actually have to give ground, and show humility, and admit he was wrong. No, he preferred to murder over actually joining together with his fellow human being and working together as part of a community.
And to make the story even more powerful, news of the Jonestown tragedy had just broken. Many of the dead at Jonestown were from San Francisco--that's where the People's Temple had been before they relocated to Guyana. There was a dark cloud hanging over the city of San Francisco in November of 1978--some very dark energy.
