Furthermore Milk is consistently portrayed as this upbeat and flirtatious character, which evidently aligns the audience to sympathise more with Milk and demonise Dan White for the “unjustified” killing of Milk. This method of demonising Dan White has been highly debated. Within the film Dan White is seen to be a confused and erratic character, rather desperate and timid in all his actions. There were certain suggestions in the film implying that Dan White was a confused homosexual denying his sexuality as ‘Sean Penn’s Harvey Milk vocalize the belief that White is “one of us,” that is gay. Yet as a “good Catholic family man,” White is obviously closeted’ (Source 7). This insinuation is unjustified. Critics further criticize Gus Van Sant and
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Ray Sloan who was Dan White’s campaign manager stresses that this is an incorrect accusation as Sloan himself is gay (Source 7). On top of that ‘many historical facts about White were conveniently left out of the movie. After watching the film, you would never know that Dan White supported nearly all of Milk’s gay-friendly resolutions’ (Source 7). Which totally belittles the script’s direction and the writer’s agenda. Furthermore Ray Sloan divulges as to how he was never asked to validate Dan White’s character and, being his closest confidant, this puts into doubt the film’s legitimacy. Dan White’s murderous actions were never fully explained or proven (Source 3) and making these assumptions has detracted from the films historical …show more content…
This concept can mainly be seen by the over dramatized death of Harvey Milk. Source Fifteen, a magazine article in Esquire Magazine written by Chris Jones, divulges Harvey Milk’s assassination and the controversy around the film’s portrayal of Milk’s death. Chris Jones claims that Milk’s ‘death has been given its stage’ meaning that Gus Van Sant’s use of slow motion, flashing imagery, domineering opera music and Milk’s foreboding facial expression was over done and not true to its historical nature. Also the suggestion that opera music was playing is not something that can be proven, despite there being an opera house across from San Francisco City Hall where Milk worked. Further the location of Milk’s office is not proven to have been in view of this opera house building. This overdramatized portrayal of Milk’s death brings to question what else the filmmakers exaggerated. Furthermore the writer Dustin Lance Black, when winning the Academy award for Best Script admitted to idolizing Harvey Milk as he was also once ’ a gay closeted teen’ (Source 16). This sort of affinity towards Harvey Milk could have created an element of bias within the film and could have attributed to Sean Penn’s consistently upbeat depiction of Milk or the unproven insinuations surrounding Dan White’s motives. As such Dustin Lance Black’s agenda as a writer
Ray Sloan who was Dan White’s campaign manager stresses that this is an incorrect accusation as Sloan himself is gay (Source 7). On top of that ‘many historical facts about White were conveniently left out of the movie. After watching the film, you would never know that Dan White supported nearly all of Milk’s gay-friendly resolutions’ (Source 7). Which totally belittles the script’s direction and the writer’s agenda. Furthermore Ray Sloan divulges as to how he was never asked to validate Dan White’s character and, being his closest confidant, this puts into doubt the film’s legitimacy. Dan White’s murderous actions were never fully explained or proven (Source 3) and making these assumptions has detracted from the films historical …show more content…
This concept can mainly be seen by the over dramatized death of Harvey Milk. Source Fifteen, a magazine article in Esquire Magazine written by Chris Jones, divulges Harvey Milk’s assassination and the controversy around the film’s portrayal of Milk’s death. Chris Jones claims that Milk’s ‘death has been given its stage’ meaning that Gus Van Sant’s use of slow motion, flashing imagery, domineering opera music and Milk’s foreboding facial expression was over done and not true to its historical nature. Also the suggestion that opera music was playing is not something that can be proven, despite there being an opera house across from San Francisco City Hall where Milk worked. Further the location of Milk’s office is not proven to have been in view of this opera house building. This overdramatized portrayal of Milk’s death brings to question what else the filmmakers exaggerated. Furthermore the writer Dustin Lance Black, when winning the Academy award for Best Script admitted to idolizing Harvey Milk as he was also once ’ a gay closeted teen’ (Source 16). This sort of affinity towards Harvey Milk could have created an element of bias within the film and could have attributed to Sean Penn’s consistently upbeat depiction of Milk or the unproven insinuations surrounding Dan White’s motives. As such Dustin Lance Black’s agenda as a writer