Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black finds inspiration both personal and political
During one scene in Gus Van Sant’s new film Milk Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) urges all of his colleagues to call their family friends and colleagues and come out — to say “I’m gay.” It’s a tense and uncomfortable scene one that Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black says is akin to his experience. “I came from a conservative Mormon background” he says. “When I told my mom I was gay it was late — I was in my early 20s. I had been privately out for some time. It was hard. There were a lot of tears and it didn’t go over easily. But she got to know my boyfriend and [I got to] say that it wasn’t the evil dark thing that is preached in so many churches — that the stereotypes aren’t true the fears aren’t real. In the end my relationship looks like her heterosexual marriage. More than anything she asks ‘When are the grandkids coming? You know they let you adopt in California.’ I know what happened to me wasn’t the case for everyone but that’s what eventually happened — love.”
Milk is based on the life of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk the first openly gay person elected to a government position in the United States. Milk moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s with his (then) partner Scott Smith. The two settled in San Francisco’s famed gay Castro district where they opened up a camera shop. Milk quickly became immersed in the fight for gay rights and politics and was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. In 1978 he led a successful fight against California’s Proposition 6 the national initiative started by Florida’s Anita Bryant a conservative Christian to keep gays and anyone who supported them out of public schools. During this time he had come to blows with a fellow supervisor Dan White. Whether by political machinations or mental instability on November 27 1978 White shot both Milk and SF mayor George Moscone to death.
The idea of a film based on Milk’s life had been bandied about for years — Van Sant had been attached to a project years ago. Having heard Milk’s story as a teen Black was inspired to write a screenplay based on the politician’s life. He began to write it nearly four years ago without a producer attached. During the writing he met Cleve Jones (the activist and artist who created the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt) who played a large role in connecting Black with many of the key players from Milk’s time.
“For about two-and-a-half years I was able to talk with many of Harvey’s colleagues and now count many among my friends: Danny Nicoletta Michael Wong and Anne Kronenberg” Black says. “When I was done with the script I was going to take it out to some directors and Cleave said ‘No let me send it out’ and he gave it to Gus.” From there the film came together very quickly — in a matter of weeks the producers and Penn were on board.
Black found it difficult to compress Milk’s life to suit the length of the film — essentially the last six years of his life where he entered politics was elected as a city supervisor and was eventually assassinated by White. And while much of the film is devoted to crafting a biography it also delves into the psyches of some of the key players particularly White whose motives are left to interpretation. There are a number of theories: his homophobic hatred a desire for political revenge (White resigned shortly before he killed Milk and unsuccessfully asked for his job back) or even a struggle with his own sexuality.
“The sexuality question is one that Harvey brought up in the two weeks before the assassination” says Black. “[White] was outmatched and way in over his head. I think that when he tried to resign it was the right thing to do. When it became clear he couldn’t manage that… it was hideous and wrong but perhaps that was his last way to take back control.” White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for which he was sentenced to just under eight years in jail (his lawyers claimed that his actions may have been due in part to his unhealthy addiction to junk food; it was dubbed the “Twinkie defence” in the media and led to the “White Night Riots” that saw hundreds of angry gays take to the streets). Shortly after being released from prison in 1985 he committed suicide.
Van Sant’s earlier works (particularly Mala Noche and My Own Private Idaho ) focused much more on homosexuality and desire; they belong to a type of queer cinema that he largely abandoned in his later commercial ( Good Will Hunting ) and non-narrative ( Gerry Elephant ) works. While Van Sant has been openly gay for years Milk is a somewhat curious choice for the director: politically driven (esthetically much of the film looks like the type of historical drama viewers are conditioned to recognize) yet crafted by his own unique poetic sensibilities. “He kept the movie real and made me feel safe as a writer” says Black. “I knew he wouldn’t ‘straighten’ it up and [would] show the Castro for what it was and gay people for who they are. I don’t know if every director would do that.”
The film was shot entirely in San Francisco with the filmmakers taking great care to reproduce late-’70s San Francisco particularly the Castro district: at that time the most public and active gay area in America. Perhaps the most powerful scene in the film is the re-creation of the candlelight vigil and march after Milk’s death juxtaposed with actual footage taken from that time — a mass of tens of thousands of people miles long lighting up the streets. “When it came time to do the march due to the limited budget we sent out word that we needed extras” says Black. “At night in February in ’70s dress. We got 4000 people — it was extraordinary. Many of them were at the original march. It was a real testament to the city of San Francisco of keeping Harvey’s spirit alive.”
Although he couldn’t have predicted it the controversy over Proposition 8 (which reversed the legalization of gay marriage in California) hangs over the release of the film. It eerily mirrors Milk’s struggle against Proposition 6. “When I was writing four-and-a-half years ago it was in the midst of a re-election campaign that tried to pit homophobes against straight people — ‘protect our families’ etc. It mirrored the rhetoric of Anita Bryant. I always knew this story was one we still needed to learn lessons from. Thirty years later we’re still learning to win these fights and it’s not over.
“The exciting thing about November 5 [the day after the American presidential election which also included Proposition 8] was that the film wasn’t out yet and in L.A. the young people took to the streets like they did 30 years earlier” adds Black. “Young gay and lesbian people know what they have to do. They know who it was that hurt them and that they need to fight again. If the film makes them more secure in that… I think Harvey would have been thrilled to see that those survival instincts are still out there.”
