I watched both Milk and Vicky Cristina Barcelona today. I loved both of them. I am pretty well versed in the history of Harvey Milk and learned little from the film. I think this allowed me to really just watch the story and the acting. Sean Penn was striking and I thought I was watching old footage of Milk most of the time. It was a beautiful movie and it really opened up what the fight was like in the not so distant past.
It is quite incredible that the film culminates to the sound defeat of Proposition 6. I wonder how many people feel when they see this movie, and then think about the victory of Proposition 8 this last year. Thirty years later we are fighting to protect people’s civil rights and liberties not to be excluded, and this time we lost. Has progression devolved into regression. I fear so.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona was awesome. I am glad I had a light film after Milk. The scenes was deliciously hot, and sex between characters was riveting. The theme of a lot of films right now seems to be “defy conventionality at all costs.” This I like a lot.