"You gotta give ‘em hope" is Harvey Milk's mantra throughout Gus Van Sant's biopic of the San Francisco politician/gay rights activist. Despite the film's tragic and looming ending, it is difficult not to walk away from the film filled with the hope that Sean Penn's character spreads to everyone he meets. The film, of course, is timed perfectly with California's recent Proposition 8 vote, but it reaches beyond the scope of California's politics and gives us a vivid picture of a human spirit bursting at it seams with love and hope for everyone. And while it is rooted in the reality of the civil rights of homosexuals, it transcends the Castro district of the 70s.
After watching this film it's difficult not to see how powerful of a concept hope is, and perhaps, how essential it is for us. Bruce Springsteen explores this theme in the concluding song of his brooding album Nebraska as he recounts scene after scene - a woman waiting for her husband to come back after leaving her, a baby being baptized, a preacher praying at a funeral. These seemingly benign events that constitute our lives are pregnant with hope and we "find some reason to believe". The ironic thing about hope is that at the core of it lies the fact that things aren't how they ought to be. Intertwined with the longing for a brilliant future, is the reality that our present reality is broken.
There is an undercurrent of righteous anger throughout the film, which is balanced out both by Harvey's disarming personality, as well as Van Sant's commitment to avoiding the heavy-handed. The anger is also balanced out by genuine moments of melancholy and grieving - both for personal tragedies, and for a community that refuses to embrace Milk's hope. There is no mistaking though, the feelings of Cleeve Jones (Emile Hirsch) as feelings that every homosexual man has certainly felt at some point. Harvey's patience and vision are in contrast with Jones' combativeness. Almost lost by the scope of the story, is the way Harvey's unflapple vision for change transforms Jones into the person he is at the end of the film.
My hope is that this wouldn't be seen as a "gay" film, or a "political film", but a film about the immutability of the human spirit, and as a testament to the irreplaceable desire for hope that is within everyone. It's Harvey's hope that presents his community with a different way to live. It's Harvey's hope that inspires the people around him to rise up and take action. And it's Harvey's hope that reminds us another world is possible. The campaign battle cry that Sean Penn ends each speech with "Hi I'm Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you," isn't just a call for civil rights (though it could be) - it's a recruitment towards a new world - a new reality - and it begins with hope.
