Milk is a solid bio-pic from Gus Van Sant that depicts the life of Harvey Milk as a political activist and elected official.What interested me, though, is neither the veracity of the story nor the acting, but how Van Sant approached the story. Milk is unlike some of his more experimental films such as Elephant in that it presents the story in a very chronological format. Interspersed throughout the film are scenes of Milk dictating the history of his life. The scenes repeatedly remind the viewer that this isn’t some writer’s idea of Milk’s life, but it is Milk’s life through Milk’s eyes. Why, though, does the viewer need the perpetual repetition? Is Van Sant afraid one will forget that Milk suffered the private life a lonely fighter, aware of his impending doom, but bravely ready to push onward? Whatever the reason, it does add an element of contemplation that slows the historic and ordained march towards the conclusion that most bio-pics tend to have. Instead, the story pauses for just a moment and injects a moment of foreboding, in case one has forgotten. The technique is effective, if used a little too often.

In a similar manner, Van Sant used the opening credits to make it clear the film and its central charachter are fighters. Using films of police raids durring the 50’s and 60’s, Van Sant shows there is more to this film than just a narration of events, but a reflection of a real struggle. It adds a rawness that bio-pics can lack because they are too focused on getting the details right.

Unless a bio-pic is particularly egregious in terms of script or accuracy, I have little to say about them. The only thing I do know is that a bio-pic is just another form of fiction no matter how true it is.