When Gus Van Sant’s Milk was released, many reviewers invoked this documentary from 1984, citing it as the superior film.
As supervisor for the Castro district of San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. Much loved by San Franciscans, he was instrumental in the LGBTQ movement and a champion of human rights for all.
This is the stranger-than-fiction story of his election, his short time in office and his eventual assassination, along with the Mayor of San Francisco, by a fellow councillor and political rival, the conservative Dan White.
The documentary offers fuller insight into Milk’s character through archive footage of the man himself and interviews with the people who knew him best, showing his natural charm and charisma. It fills in the gaps that Van Sant’s film left, most notably the lenient sentencing of White (who was exonerated for being under the influence of junk food) and the riots which ensued from the community’s anger that White quite literally got away with murder.
The Times of Harvey Milk is warm and funny, shocking and affecting, a must-see both as a companion piece to Van Sant’s film and a standalone documentary in its own right.