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In response to
""Doubt" (with spoilers)"
by
pigby
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"Milk"
Posted by
pigby (aka chris)
Feb 10 '09, 20:18
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MILK no draft date/116pp.
MILK is a period bio pic about gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. The script sets out an interesting journey for Milk, a man who must make the leap from a conservative life on Wall Street led from deeply within the closet to a man who fights on the forefront of the gay rights movement in the �70s. On its face, this appears to be a powerful arc. However, as executed, none of it appears on screen. The audience is privy only to a single scene of Milk�s closeted life and from there, the script leaps forward [14 years] to find Harvey in an open gay relationship and on his way to political stardom. With the personal [internal] struggle resolved, the remaining 90% of the script is forced to rely solely on the external struggle, which involves Harvey�s various campaigns and his eventual elected position as Supervisor. Unfortunately, the political wrangling isn�t particularly engaging. His various failed campaigns are redundant and by the time the script gets to the point [the battle to stop Proposition 6, which is designed to remove homosexual teachers & staff from schools], there is not much time to dig into the complexity of the situation. Throughout the struggle to fight Prop 6, tension is hard to find. In fact, Harvey comes off as so in control of the situation that the dramatics suffer.
The script should also reconsider its opening sequence, which reveals that Dan White murders Milk and Moscone. In essence, this is only solid surprise in the entire script and the efforts to build tension between White and Milk through the latter half of act two are far less effective because the audience already knows how the story ends. Although the double murder provides a shocking start to the script, it derails what should have been the primary focus of act two � the slow burning antagonism between White and Milk. To this same point, more depth in the characterization of White could give this story more dimension. As executed, the audience knows little more about White at fade out as is known on page one.
As a final note, the romantic line between Milk and Scott Smith is also underutilized. The relationship starts strong, but after they part ways, the sense of a strong bond dissipates. The fact that Smith is still referred to as �The Widow Milk� a full twenty years after his death [this point is revealed in the film�s final scroll] suggests a depth of emotion that doesn�t find its way to the screen in this draft. Although the romance is far less important that finding a stronger dramatic spine for the A-story [the political tale] � something beyond the redundant campaign sequences and quickly handled Prop 6 finale � but a solid romance would add some much needed texture to the tale.
Although well intentioned, this take on MILK has some good scene-to-scene writing, but fails to find the dramatics to make the journey consistently engaging. With a questionable structure, a weak A-story and a prematurely resolved protagonist, MILK does not merit further consideration at this time.
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