"Milk"... I watched it last night and was just blown away by the...

[CurtEastPoint]

amazing recreations and historical footage, along with Sean Penn's terrific performance.

It sheds a lot of light on where we are today and how frighteningly close we still are to that era of intolerance and hatred. It is inspiring and should make anyone more aware of what freedom and rights are all about.

[CTyankee]

1. And what a caring and tender movie it is as well.

I was overcome with admiration for that movie. I was overjoyed when Sean Penn won the Oscar!

[Fearless]

2. It was a beautiful film!

[targetpractice]

3. While it's fresh in your mind...

You should watch "The Times of Harvey Milk" documentary, narrated by Harvey Fierstein. It won an Oscar, and is quite a tear-jerker, too. Plus, it's free to watch on Hulu...

http://www.hulu.com/the-times-of-harvey-milk

Trust me... It's a must see.

[Kceres]

4. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and thought the casting and acting were terrific.

My only complaint was that the storyline moved too fast, although frankly I'm not sure what could have been done differently. Anyway, Sean Penn was sensational.

[damntexdem]

5. Great movie -- I saw it recently on HBO.

And I lived in SF during that era: the Briggs Initiative; the Milk/Moscone shootings AND People's Temple a couple of weeks apart. But plenty of ups, too -- Freedom Days among others.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Such a fine motion picture

Gus Van Sant directed the hell out of that movie, his strengths were apparent and his disciple was great. His best movie ever. And Sean Penn was just the top of the excellent ensemble, his star turn was one of many in the film. I was so proud of them all, and so glad the movie exists, in part for the gay history, but also for the Grassroots history, it is a film about activism, and about community, and about love.

[Capn Sunshine]

7. I just saw it last night

It was a magnificent tour de force for Penn, and it got me to thinking about Harvey Milk and what we lost from the POV of losing a masterful politician. Back then we had groups that were "issue" oriented that we cobbled together into an effective coalition. "Gay" was viewed as an "issue". As a longtime Dem activist I worked in the 1978 campaign, which included the Briggs initiative. I never realized back then that it was even considered as having a chance of winning. EVERYBODY was against that piece of crap thing, it almost seemed silly to waste any time working against it. It was resoundingly defeated.

Fast forward to 2008. Prop 8 on the ballot. Our experience with the resounding defeat of prop 6 as historical backdrop, we assumed that turning out the vote for Obama would bring the numbers we needed to defeat Prop 8 to the polls automatically. That it was a mutual benefit. So no one took Prop 8 seriously, in terms of focusing specifically on that. It was an "Issue".

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum for apologies, but know that I will NEVER, EVER make that mistake again. We fucked up. We dropped the ball big time, to my everlasting regret. What Harvey said back then has only recently sunk in : this is about human rights.

I'm truly sorry we weren't listening. I hope the GLBT community can forgive us.

[Toasterlad]

8. If You Didn't Vote Yes on Prop 8, You Don't Owe Anyone an Apology.

Sure we could have been better organized, and spent more money, and made more of an effort. But the bottom line is, the people that are responsible for California losing same-sex marriage are the people who voted to remove it.

We must do all we can to advance our rights, but we must never forget that it is NEVER our fault that we don't have those rights in the first place. The blame belongs to narrow-minded bigots, who need to be exposed for the ignorant assholes that they are.

[mitchtv]

9. I saw it last week

Very nostalgic, as I lived then in SF.

[HillWilliam]

10. My partner and I watched it last week, too

Wow. Beautifully told. That's a "keeper" movie for the collection for sure. We rarely buy movies, but that's one we most certainly will.