Filed under: film | Tags: gay, gus van sant, harvey milk, marriage, sean penn
I’m fairly excited by the opening of Gus Van Sant’s Milk in theatres today. A little giddy to be honest, like the night that Brokeback Mountain opened and the Coolidge Corner Moviehouse (the best theatre in Boston) was packed with gay men and lesbians, coming together to witness a ground-breaking moment for mainstream America. Even reminds me a bit of the historic moment when Cambridge City Hall opened its doors at midnight to officiate the nation’s first gay marriages in May 2004 (check it out Rush Limbaugh–it’s been four years of same-sex marriage and our nation hasn’t been swallowed up in an apocalypse).
The timing of Milk’s opening is great; what else do Americans have to do tonight? Why not treat a straight friend to the cinema tonight instead of slouching on the sofa with a bag of Cheetos?
Towleroad has collected extensive coverage of the film, including Sean Penn’s eloquent comments on the leadership of Harvey Milk:
Penn said, in an interview late last week, “I think less people would have died of AIDS [if Harvey Milk had not been assassinated]. I think Ronald Reagan would have been forced to address it. [Milk] was a leader, and he happened to be focused on the gay movement. He would have advanced that argument a lot sooner. I think people are dead because he died too soon.”
Penn also condemned Prop 8: “If we could have no excuse for being ignorant in human history, then the punishment for support of Proposition 8 would be minimally manslaughter. There will be teenage boys who will hang themselves [because of this].”
If you haven’t heard yet, avoid Cinemark theaters because the movie chain’s Mormon owner donated thousands to discriminate against same-sex marriage.
Get out there and support this important film!
Filed under: film, politics | Tags: franco, harvey milk, homophobia, letterman
James Franco, gracious actor that he is, fends off the homophobia of David Letterman in this clip from Friday night’s show in which he’s publicizing Gus Van Sant’s Milk. Letterman keeps harping on Franco’s kiss with Sean Penn; it’s almost as if he wants Franco to claim that kissing another man was equal to the task of building an atomic bomb.
Later in the interview, after Letterman’s third attempt to solicit a homophobic remark, Franco offers him a man-on-man kiss. Reminds me of the discussions I had last week in my lit class, in which the strongest response of my (male) students was that it was “courageous” of the male actors to kiss on stage.
