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Oscar-Winning Director Rob Epstein Remembers Harvey Milk

When Rob Epstein released his 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, it didn’t simply serve as a memorial to Milk -- it gave him new life. For more than two decades, filmmakers have tried to turn Milk's life into a major motion picture. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and Gus Van Sant finally made it work, and Epstein, who calls the film "beautiful," takes a look back at the man who inspired a movement and what's become of California's gay community without him.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted November 18, 2008
Oscar-Winning Director Rob Epstein Remembers Harvey Milk
Photo: Daniel Nicoletta/Focus Features

When Rob Epstein released his 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, it didn’t simply serve as a memorial to Milk -- it gave him new life. The film won the Oscar and became one of the most powerful contributions to the gay cinematic canon, and in the past two decades, some of Hollywood’s biggest talents have attempted to take Milk’s story and create a fiction film. Now, as Gus Van Sant’s Milk premieres –- and the recent gay rights rallies make Milk’s story more relevant than ever –- we talked with Epstein about the parallels between then and now.

Advocate.com: You've seen Gus Van Sant's film -- what did you think of it?
Rob Epstein: I think it's very good. It's a beautiful, tender portrait of Harvey. Sean Penn... you know, it's a beautiful rendering of him.

You were immersed in footage of Milk for so long. To see someone else do an interpretation of him ... were there things Penn did that surprised you?
You know, I was surprised by the tenderness of it. The whole film has that quality, and that was a surprise to me. It's very much an interpretation of Harvey -- I wouldn't say it's an exact impersonation of him, and it shouldn't be.

Did you have any conversations with Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter?
Yeah, but you know, I'm not going to get into that. It's a bit of a sore point. But getting back to the other performances, all those characterizations were so spot-on. Certainly [Josh] Brolin as Dan White and Emile [Hirsch] as Cleve [Jones]. When I saw his introduction of Cleve, knowing Cleve back then, it was kind of uncanny.

How involved were you in the other attempts to get this story off the ground over the last 20-odd years?
I haven't had direct involvement -- I mean, I first met Gus when The Times of Harvey Milk came out and Mala Noche, his first film, came out at the same time. We met probably at the gay film festival at the Castro back then. I guess it was a little later that I got wind that Oliver Stone was trying to develop [Milk's] story. Gus claims that I mentioned it to him and said that he was the one to do it, which I always did feel, that he was the one to do it. But then over the years, I haven't had direct involvement. I think that The Times of Harvey Milk has had direct involvement -- the film has more than me, personally.

It's hard not to notice some of the similarities between Harvey Milk and Barack Obama -- both men were minority candidates who succeeded against an entrenched political machine due in part to a strong message of hope. Would you agree?
Oh, absolutely. I think they are kindred spirits, in terms of their ability to bring people together. That's very much what Harvey was about and what he stood for. He was democratizing the early gay rights movement and finding a way to make it part of the government of San Francisco at that time -- certainly, that's what Obama is about on a much grander, bigger scale. I definitely see the parallels. Maybe if Harvey was alive, it would have been Obama-Milk! 

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Keywords:  Harvey Milk 
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