The Times of Harvey Milk

An ideal double bill to go with the Gus Van Sant biopic. As a film, Epstein does a sweet job of creating an empathetic portrait--going as far as avoiding obtrusive closeups during emotional interviews on Milk's life. It's also a fantastic document of the late 70's Bay Area, with great music and references to Jonestown. If you know anyone who wants a future in politics, have them watch this inspiring movie on this man and his attempt to build a rainbow coalition around people's everyday concerns.

Forget about the hugely overrated Sean Penn/Hollywood-version. This is the real deal.

Deeply felt and emotional documentary is a little too skimpy condensed to a 90 minute running time - one can see the 3 distinct 30 minute "acts", but the mid-section covering Milk's political career feels rushed and inconclusive (I wanted more of his debates with the likes of the odious Senator Briggs). Third section making some (no doubt reasonable) claims as to how homophobia impacted the White verdict are slightly frustrating, lacking the time to really tease them out.

Viewed August 8, 2013. Harvey Milk was clearly a great man, but what this film really illuminated to me was the amount of injustice surrounding Dan White's verdict, with a jury that somehow fell for a laughably hilarious defense in some kind of incredible misjudgement. Is misjudgement a word? Chrome tells me it isn't, but I don't trust technology.

Milk is an iconic figure for a pretty good reason.

After watching *Milk*, I thought a documentary would have been a better approach to telling Milk's story, and this documentary confirms that feeling. (probable score: 73)

"It's one thing for a documentary to claim a person great, it's something else entirely to convince the audience they have an active role in fulfilling his legacy." - Eric Henderson

A solid and interesting documentary. The way it mixes interviews, raw footage and narration is very effective in tying various aspects of Milk's life to the world around him. Has a few stumbles but also some very moving moments and on the whole well worth watching.

Since Gus Van Sant's Milk primarily acts as a character portrait, this film is broader and fleshes out more of the details. Milk's politics, his associates, the aftermath of his murder, the trial and the infamous "Twinkie defense" and the resulting riots. It's a well-constructed documentary, although I wouldn't say there's anything remarkable about it. There's a real shortage of documentaries on the TSPDT list and I can think of several more deserving ones, but I didn't mind watching it.

Nice addendum 2 the feature (or vice versa), this adds little new info but remains watchable due to interesting details feature left out (e.g. Milk wasn't the only gay man running; White's lawyer's audacity wasn't limited 2 his "twinkie defense" but his arguments re: a City Hall window that was "commonly" used as an entrance(!))& demonstrating how surprisingly ultra-liberal 70'sSan Franscisco could b, while at the same time unable 2 do anything about the very real prejudices of their courts

An excellent documentary that shows us a man who really cared about his culture and all the people he represented.

Amazing that Dan White only spent five years in jail for premeditated murder, after relying on the "Twinky defense" in court. The inventor of twinkies ate five a day every day and lived to 85 (and killed no-one). The inspiration for the Dead Kennedy's song "I fought the law (and I won)"

clearly this is inherently interesting and emotional material, but the dude deserves a better documentary. i liked sally gearhart in here, i should look her stuff up.

"I agree with you."

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