Gus Van Sant (Finding Forrester, Paranoid Park) directed this superlative biopicture about Harvey Milk, the San Francisco politician who was the first openly gay man elected to a major U.S. public office. He was a charismatic leader who fought long and hard for gay rights in a society rocked by homophobic hatred. Sean Penn won an Academy award for his extraordinary performance as Harvey Milk.
This Newmarket Shooting Script paperback includes the original screenplay by Dustin Lance Black, along with scene notes, an exclusive introduction by director Gus Van Sant, a color photo section, the complete cast and crew credits, and a conversation with Black, Van Sant and Cleve Jones, one of the original political activists with Harvey Milk. In this piece, the latter states:
"Another thing that I really love about the story of Harvey or talking about Harvey — and it really comes through in this film — is sort of the ordinariness of Harvey. He was not a movie star, he was not wealthy. I want young people to understand that in so many ways, Harvey was just an ordinary faggot. You know his personal life was in disarray. He was a lousy businessman. He had many, many failures in his life, many tragedies. What makes him remarkable was that even though he was in so many respects so flawed and so ordinary and so beset by all the everyday challenges of life that we all face, he did in fact change the world, and he did that by being honest, by being courageous, and by never, ever giving up. I think that that really, really comes through in the film."
