Milk

One of the best ... and Sean Penn is the best, with a tremendous supporting roles, including Josh Brolin (what a roll he's on - as Dan White), Emile Hirsh, and James Franco.

In all regards, editing, music, script, acting - an Academy Award level film ... but more importantly, this is a film that takes the soul on a journey.

Stylistically, the film moves alongside scenes of Milk taping a message to be played only if he's assassinated - sort of a narration as the story unfolds.

Milk was 40 when he finally came out of the closet and moved to San Francisco. Determined to do something, he began to work for gay rights, ultimately becoming a San Francisco supervisor, the first openly gay person elected to office anywhere in the United States.

Hats off to Penn for taking on this role - nothing is held back in his portrayal of a gay man, his love, his passion, his hopes and dreams - finally, one gets the impression: guess what, gays, like anyone else, want to love and be loved. It's as simple and as powerful as that.

The film is all the more poignant in view of California's recent passing of Prop 8. That California could defeat Prop 6 in 1978 and then pass Prop 8 in 2008 is beyond me. This will go down as a black mark on California's spirit. Yet I hope that either through the state Supreme Court, or another Prop measure, we'll be able to correct this hideous mistake.

In terms of a message - our American Constitution provides and protects equal rights for all, including gays ... and conservative Christians are at the root of the effort to restrict or deny those rights because "it's God's law."

As a life-long Christian who has championed the cause of social freedom, it's heartbreaking and maddening to see the arrogance of an Anita Bryant and others who so easily claim god for their side - made all the more clear because of the film's use of archival footage.

Upon seeing and hearing Bryant, my first thought - Palin!

Where do they come from? How do they think? And how can Christians see these folks as heroes of the faith (for an example of this, click HERE)? Thankfully, Bryant's career tanked, and so has her life. While one hates to see anyone suffer, I can only be grateful that her presence has been essentially removed from the American scene.

But thinking is not to be found in their ranks, only prejudice and the overwhelming confidence that their take on things is the right and only way - as god would have it!

To think, even for a moment, would bring down the house of cards, and that's what it is - an inherently unstable world view trequiring enormous amounts of energy to keep it propped up - is it any wonder fundamentalists/evangelicals are so edgy? They talk but to themselves, endlessly congratulating one another on their faithfulness to God while deriding and debasing anyone who calls them into question.

Go see the movie! It is a journey for the soul.