Prejudice in Movies - Milk
Setting This movie was set in America in the 1970s fresh off of the 50s and 60s where police would raid establishments and arrest people for being gay. The film is a biography of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to hold public office in the state of California. It begins in New York on Milk’s 40th birthday and follows him to his move to San Francisco and the political roller coaster he went through to become San Francisco’s city advisor and the tribulations that he faced after. The movie follows him all the way until his assassination by former Supervisor Dan White.
Conflict
The conflict that was shown throughout the film was Milk’s sexual orientation and the social norms around him. He and his partner moved to San Francisco from New York because they felt that San Francisco would be more accepting of their relationship. That in fact was partially true. This was the development of the Castro district that many people known it as today, the gay community of San Francisco. It was here that Milk became an activist of sorts for gay people and their rights. The beginning showed how gays were seen as weird and dysfunctional. It gave a negative sense of the word and of those who were associated with gay individuals. Milk gets elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977; there he meets a fellow Supervisor Dan White. White is a Vietnam vet who is extremely conservative. The two begin a very complicated working relationship that in the beginning looked like it was working. In fact White had invited Milk to his child’s christening. However, that all soured when White asked Milk to support him in opposing a psychiatric hospital from opening in his district and in exchange White would Milk’s citywide gay rights ordinance. Milk did not oppose White because he thought that the youth in that area would have a negative benefit if the hospital was not built. White then felt betrayed and was the only vote against Milk’s gay rights ordinance. The movie continues down
Conflict
The conflict that was shown throughout the film was Milk’s sexual orientation and the social norms around him. He and his partner moved to San Francisco from New York because they felt that San Francisco would be more accepting of their relationship. That in fact was partially true. This was the development of the Castro district that many people known it as today, the gay community of San Francisco. It was here that Milk became an activist of sorts for gay people and their rights. The beginning showed how gays were seen as weird and dysfunctional. It gave a negative sense of the word and of those who were associated with gay individuals. Milk gets elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977; there he meets a fellow Supervisor Dan White. White is a Vietnam vet who is extremely conservative. The two begin a very complicated working relationship that in the beginning looked like it was working. In fact White had invited Milk to his child’s christening. However, that all soured when White asked Milk to support him in opposing a psychiatric hospital from opening in his district and in exchange White would Milk’s citywide gay rights ordinance. Milk did not oppose White because he thought that the youth in that area would have a negative benefit if the hospital was not built. White then felt betrayed and was the only vote against Milk’s gay rights ordinance. The movie continues down