Harvey Milk isn’t a household name. Unless one was in San Francisco during the 1970s, or paid really close attention to politics, Milk is nothing more than a blip on the radar. Gus Van Sant’s Milk tries to give us a little more insight into this man’s life.

Milk is told mostly in chronological order. At the beginning of the film, Milk (Sean Penn) begins dictating into his tape recorder in 1978. He takes the viewer back to 1970 at a subway station in New York. Walking down the stairs, a hippie named Scott Smith (James Franco) catches his eye and the two instantly fall in love. They decide to move to San Francisco, open a camera shop and live their alternative lifestyle in the open.

Moving away from New York doesn’t mean that their lifestyle is more acceptable. Cops are raiding the streets, beating up gay people, wrecking their hangouts and creating an unpleasant atmosphere for them to live in on Castro Street.

Milk knows he’s only one man but he can’t stand the attitude that his city and its inhabitants is developing. So he decides to run for a spot on the Board of Supervisors.After three tries, we finally becomes the first openly elected gay politician. Once on board, he has a lot of obstacles to contend with.

First is another member of the Board of Supervisors, Dan White (Josh Brolin). There is more to White than meets the eye. They form a mutual bond in order to help push each other’s agendas. One rejected proposal after another, White’s relationship with Milk becomes strained, and in the end, really costly.

Second is Proposition 6, a law that would have banned gays from teaching in schools, or associated with gay people at all. This was sponsored by John Briggs and Anita Bryant, who successfully got similar laws passed in Florida. Milk and his staff, headed by Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) and Anne Kroenberg (Alison Pill), know that this is an uphill battle, but nothing is going to stop them from letting this prop pass.

This is Van Sant’s best work since Good Will Hunting. He mixes in real stock footage of the 70s and incorporates it into the film. He also uses bright images to drive in the hate and anxiety the gay society faces in their town on Castro Street. Van Sant, along with writer Dustin Lance Black, elects to tell Milk’s story as an individual fighting for civil rights, rather than a gay man fighting for just gay rights. This is the greatest achievement he could’ve accomplished with this film.

Penn loses himself as Milk. With Penn, sometimes the audience sees the actor more than the character, like in I Am Sam. Instead, he completely lets go of his persona and absorbs himself as this courageous figure. Milk doesn’t want to be known as a crusader, just a person that advocated change. He doesn’t want to save the day, he’s a man that wants to stop the fear flooding his streets. Penn captures all of this and will certainly give Josh Brolin’s W. a run for his money.

Speaking of Brolin, he also deserves a supporting nomination for his portrayal as Dan White. We get this feeling that White isn’t all he’s made out to be. There’s some underlying gay subtext in him, but the audience never actually hears him admit it. We get it through his mannerism, his body movements and his faltering eyes. Not since Jamie Foxx does an actor deserve multiple nominations like Brolin.

Kudos should also go to Franco. Viewers are accustomed to seeing women be the sane person in the household, the one that keeps the house running while the husband is trying to take care of his job. We’ve never seen a man be put in that position, as a caretaker and a nurturer. Franco brings the same raw emotion, love and tenderness that we usually associate with women in these roles.

Some will see this film as a direct response to Proposition 8 that took place this past election. Yet it doesn’t feel preachy. Van Sant’s message wasn’t about gay rights, but civil rights that everyone is entitled to. The final product is a biopic that is emotionally powerful and heartbreakingly tragic. This picture is simply one of the best of 2008.