He was powerful, charismatic, compassionate and gay. After eleven months in office he was assassinated.
Overview
Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.0/10
IMDb: 8.2/10
Letterboxd: 4.13/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Rob Epstein
Production
UCLA School of Film and Television, Black Sand Productions, pacific arts
Cast
Harvey Milk, Harvey Fierstein, Anne Kronenberg, Tory Hartmann, Tom Ammiano, Jim Elliot, Henry Der, Jeannine Yeomans, Bill Kraus, Sally M. Gearhart, John Briggs, Jerry Brown, Jimmy Carter, Dianne Feinstein, David Fowler, Joseph Freitas, Terence Hallinan, George Moscone, Dan White
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A powerful, emotionally direct documentary that turns Harvey Milk’s life and assassination into a clear-eyed account of queer political awakening, backlash, and community resilience. It’s especially resonant if you want history that still feels urgent rather than safely sealed off in the past.
Best for
viewers interested in LGBTQ+ history and activism
fans of politically engaged documentaries
people who appreciate archival storytelling and civic history
audiences looking for an inspiring but unsparing true story
Skip if
you want a light or uplifting watch without tragedy
you prefer contemporary documentary style over classic archival filmmaking
you’re not in the mood for political anger and injustice
you mainly want a personal, intimate character portrait rather than movement history
Overview
The Times of Harvey Milk is one of the essential American political documentaries: concise, mournful, and galvanizing. It frames Milk not just as a charismatic public figure, but as a symbol of what organized visibility can mean for people who have been pushed to the margins.
Worth noting
What gives the film its force is the contrast between Milk’s warmth and the cold machinery of prejudice that met him. The archival material and testimony create a sense of lived history rather than distant commemoration, and the film’s anger feels earned, not performative.
Bottom line
Even decades later, it lands with unsettling relevance. It is a reminder that progress is fragile, that backlash is real, and that hope in politics is not naïve when it is tied to action, solidarity, and memory.
Top Letterboxd reviews
👽 Zara 👽 (4.5★) · 706 likes
fuck every single jury member that reportedly shed a tear for dan white, fuck them
zoë rose bryant (5★) · 465 likes
really sad to realize that we’re still fighting a lot of the same fights we were fighting 46 years ago. the more things change, the more they really do stay the same i guess - the work never stops.
anyway i love harvey milk and i love being queer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Erik 🎼 (5★) · 359 likes
i love being gay also i'm sad
Kristhian Morales (5★) · 229 likes
On November 4th, 2008 I came out of a Calculus midterm at 10 pm to the news that Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States (cruel joke for a professor to schedule a midterm on election night). It was a historic night for all the obvious reasons, but for many people in California (where I went to school), it was also a night when the marriage equality movement took a huge step backwards. Proposition 8, eliminating the… more On November 4th, 2008 I came out of a Calculus midterm at 10 pm to the news that Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States (cruel joke for a professor to schedule a midterm on election night). It was a historic night for all the obvious reasons, but for many people in California (where I went to school), it was also a night when the marriage equality movement took a huge step backwards. Proposition 8, eliminating the… more
Sally Jane Black · 224 likes
"You have two options. You can come to California, or you can stay in San Antonio and fight."
This. This is the most important thing said in this entire film. Right now, we are all under assault - queer people, trans people, all oppressed people, all exploited people, all workers, all poor, all of us except the super-rich. And we have a choice. We can try to find a corner of this world that is less hostile to us -… more