Milk

[susanstinson]

Someday, somebody is going to make a movie as moving and exciting as Milk about lesbians in the women's movement (one good bet would be on Alison Bechdel's work to spark something like that). And while I wish casual fat-bashing was no longer considered affectionate pillow talk, we're working on it, but that day has not yet come.

I cried so much as I watched Milk that it surprised me. When Harvey Milk was shot, I was still in high school in Littleton, Colorado, well known as bastion of enlightment. (I wouldn't want to dismiss or underappreciate the many kind, good, generous people who surrounded me there, but it was not a time or place in which coming out could be taken for granted, taken lightly.) I don't remember hearing of the shootings, but I remember, later, the Twinkie defense, and the very light sentence for Dan White. I was the age of the boy calling Harvey from Minnesota, and part of the story of that time in my own life involved treating myself less than tenderly. I've said it before, but it really was the gifts of activism, of trying to make changes in the way the world worked, of trying, at least, to let myself honestly see it, that opened me up to more sustainable levels of joy. That, and the relationships that came with it. And study. And reading. And starting to make art.

I just finished reading Toni Morrison's new novel, A Mercy, which is unbelievably beautiful. I'm going to write more about it in another post. Reading it reminded me of how I sat in the basement of the library at the University of Colorado at Bouder, in terrible fluorescent light, consuming Toni Morrison's novels voraciously -- Sula, Song of Solomon -- drunk on language and wrestling with meaning. Those books busted something open in me.

I thought Sean Penn was brilliant in Milk. I loved that there was an unmistakable sense of movement, that there was a sense of intimate, messy love within all the strategizing, stupid mistakes and playing with fire. In my experience, people with single-minded genius (it's a word I'll use, but it always involves an alchemy of the work and influences of many people, sometimes many communities) are often pretty difficult friends. (ETA: I just watched a video interview with Cleve Jones on his website, and he pointedly says that Harvey Milk was not a genius, not a saint, but "an ordinary faggot," so I'm adding this correction to go with that. The point being, of course, that ordinary people acting out of a larger sense of purpose can and do accomplish stunning things.) I'd guess that Harvey Milk was no different. Oh, but the willingness to fight, and the waves of people in the street -- it's a strong story, and the movie catches the opera in it.

"How do you like my new theater?" Harvey asks the young organizer Cleve Jones as they're climbing the showy steps under the dome of the state house, and Cleve, who I swear found his glasses on my nightstand in 1977, says something like, "A little over the top." Life can be like that; politics, too. I loved this movie, which finds meaning in loss without faking it (which is not to say that there 's not someone on the back of a motorbike speeding to calm the violent action he helped to start).

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's amazing, isn't it?

After seeing Milk twice, and also Frost/Nixon, we got to talking about a historical movie about the 1970s women's movement: could be a Betty Friedan/Germaine Greer type movie, or (my preference) about the lives of women touched by the changes of those times.

As for the casual fat-bashing, I'm sure it's historical. I wouldn't have wanted to see it taken out, but I would want to have seen it counterbalanced.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

The life of Audre Lorde (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lorde/lorde.htm) could make one fine movie.

[the-new-perfect.livejournal.com]

I cried over Milk, too, and had a headache for most of it, knowing what was coming. And I thought Penn was excellently cast, and acquitted himself brilliantly. The story felt familiar and I was grateful that finally, thirty years later, more people get to feel the power of the time and those particular events. And how awesome is it that people can let that story in now, in a way that was unfathomable to us, even twenty years ago?

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I just watched the documentary, too, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, which is available at hulu.com, and am thinking about it, people letting that story in now. The mayor of a city, murdered. An openly gay city supervisor, murdered. The former policeman, former firefighter, former city supervisor who shot them both in prison for only five years. The images that are staying with me from the Van Sant movie are so much about unleashing desire and harnessing it, about joy in fighting for change. Images of Harvey's pleasure in the theater of it all, and his willingness to engage with world. The true story itself is so stark, but, it does, it casts a light.

[the-new-perfect.livejournal.com]

That documentary changed my life when it came out. It cemented my belief that coming out would change the world. And in a shocking twist, apparently it did.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Greedily (and, luckily, since there's no way it's going to stop), I want more changes, except when I want it all to hold still so I can think and rest and not have to learn yet another way to make a phone call.

[the-new-perfect.livejournal.com]

That's not greedy at all. That's what feeds movement.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

:)

[plaid-is-best.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could write the movie?

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I've never written a screenplay, but you know what else would make an amazing never-before-told cinematic adventure? FaT GiRL: the movie. Just restaging the photo shoots, alone.

[(Anonymous)]

That would be great as a graphic novel style movie...like Persepolis, with background photos from the zine...that would be cool! Maybe cherrymidnight and fattest can do it. I am sure you could write a screenplay...you are amazing!

[plaid-is-best.livejournal.com]

oops, that was me....

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Or if they didn't want to take it on, maybe they could be historical consultants to Gus Van Sant. Or... it's true, I didn't see Persepolis, but that style could be great in a movie, and it would also make an excellent graphic novel. The visuals!!

You are always so right there with the praise for my work, hon. Thank you.

[pegsioux.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO MUCH for this post. You said a whole helluva lot that I've been thinking, too.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Well now, that makes me happy, especially since I know that you're someone who knows how to wake up a crowd with a bullhorn.

[mandypoet.livejournal.com]

Hello, I have been following your journal for some time, and I wonder if you might be willing to add me as a friend so that I could read your friends-only posts. I first found your journal via a link on Alison Bechdel's blog, but we're also both friends with Krissy (daisygrl on livejournal). I'm a poet and teacher who lives near Seattle.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about, and just decided: okay. But please don't get your feelings hurt if I change my mind. I've been cutting down on my friendslist, and only adding folks who I know in person or have anything pretty strong connection to. Privacy's important to me. But let's give it a try.