Milk

Harvey Milk, an icon of the civil rights movement, looks back on the last eight years through his own tape recordings. In the early 1970s, New York civil rights activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) moves to San Francisco with his boyfriend Scott Smith (James Franco), who is 18 years his junior, where he leads the life of a politically active hippie in the Castro district. The Castro begins to develop into the center of the gay scene. Milk opens a photo shop, which becomes a kind of unofficial meeting place. Together, they work on his political career, but at the same time, Milk also supports the younger activist Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch). When Milk is finally elected as the first gay city councilor after several attempts, Scott, who has always feared for Harvey's failing health, has already left him in resignation. But Milk's new lover, the unstable Mexican Jack Lira (Diego Luna), soon becomes a burden with his mood swings, jealousy, and drunken public appearances. Although Milk had always expected the possibility of an assassination during his years of fighting for gay rights, he continued his campaigns undeterred: he protested against dismissals based on sexual orientation and a planned referendum that would ban gay teachers from practicing their profession. This leads to a fierce conflict with his conservative city council colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin), which will end fatally for Milk and Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber).