The Milk Movie and Democracy

      

   We can examine artistic works not only as an aesthetic dimension but also as a source that shows political and social structures. The movie Harvey, directed by Gus Van Sant in 2008, also tried to reflect the period politically and socially and to show us various thoughts. In this article, I will examine what kind of messages the movie Milk gives us in the political and social context, especially from more specific perspectives such as democracy and human rights. I will discuss the political and social reflection of the film, its positive and negative aspects, and the messages it gives us.
   Milk is a biographical film directed by Gus Van Sant in 2008. The film deals with the political life and era of politician Harvey Milk in the 1970s. The subject of the movie is Harvey Milk, the first politician to be elected to the California State Legislature without hiding his sexual orientation. Harvey, who lives in New York and is approaching 40 years old, lived his life in the closet in his own words. He decides to move to San Francisco with boyfriend Scott. He will start a new life in San Francisco and stop hiding his sexual identity. He and her boyfriend Scott open a shop selling photography and camera parts on Castro Street. But not all of his neighbors in the neighborhood are happy about it. This is important to Harvey because little by little he will begin to organize. He is disturbed because he is exposed to discrimination based on sexual orientation here. Together with Allan Baird, Head of the Teamsters Union, they held a beer protest. This protest was successful and sales declined. However, the teamsters union has started to recruit gay drivers. Harvey saw that it was possible to get his rights by organizing here. However, increasing police violence against LGBT individuals at that time affected Harvey. One day, he saw the death of a friend and blames the police for it. The street they live in has almost become a gathering place for LGBT individuals. As Harvey saw the crowds, he became aware of his powers and began to give speeches to the people. With his famous phrase 'My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you', he started to become the masses. In 1973 he ran for the San Francisco Supervisory Board. He loses this election because he is a novice and financially incompetent. But without losing hope, he begins to prepare for the next election. He narrowly lost the next election, but he did not give up hope. He won the election after losing 3 times in 1977 and became the city supervisor. This has been a great nationwide event and has given hope to many people. During his tenure, he supported those who suffered discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and other victim groups. 11 months after he took office, he was killed by an inspector like himself, Dan White. The movie Milk has remarkably emphasized that we must fight for our rights ourselves. The sentence 'rights are not given, taken' reflects Harvey's life. It has been stated that if we are not equal in the political sense, no equality will yield results. However, the relationship between human rights and democracy has been emphasized impressively. In addition to these, one of the important theses of the movie is to show how prejudiced and ignorant sexual orientation-based hate crimes are.
   The movie Milk also has a documentary quality as it adds old recordings in some scenes. Therefore, it also reflects the political and legal structure of the period. The United States was a country that could be called democratic, although that period had some aspects of it that were undemocratic. In this respect, the film also emphasized the positive aspects of political life. For example, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression for  their rights is a notable scene in the movie. Milk was able to introduce himself by explaining his ideas to people. This is an event that can happen thanks to democratic systems. Although Harvey's freedom to work economically was restricted due to his sexual orientation in the early days, he was able to obtain these rights thanks to his political basic freedoms. The necessary condition and necessary tool of democracy is political democracy (Sartori, 2014). It has been shown that other rights can be achieved through political democracy. In addition to these, it is stated in the film that the public opinion in democracies is formed in a more horizontal way and with multiple particles. Another example is that Milk won the election by striving despite being unsuccessful in the elections. Here, a positive feature has been shown in terms of democratic administrations. This is the probability of the minority becoming the majority in democracies. That is, the film showed the hope that exists in democracies. It was emphasized here that an independent media, which is important in democracies, is also important because during this process, the media helped Milk to convey his ideas to the people. In addition to these examples, a politically positive example of the film is the scene in which Harvey explains to people why he should be nominated. According to Milk, if one of them was in the administration, he could react like them and protect their rights better. This is possible in democracies because democracies can provide freedom for people to act in their own interests (Dahl, 2021). One of the important features of democracies is inclusion. This is reflected as a positive feature in terms of the political environment in the film. Better to be included than out (Dahl,2021).
 

   In addition to the above-mentioned positive aspects, the film strikingly revealed its political and legal negative aspects. For example, Milk received many times death threats. In the first scenes of the movie, Scott wants to go to the police in the face of the death threat on paper, but Harvey prevents it because he does not trust the cops. He has seen that the police do not care much about LGBT individuals and they also use very harsh violence against LGBT individuals. This is a major violation of human rights, both politically and legally. Another similar example was experienced by John Briggs, whom they against in the 'proposition 6' vote. Briggs threatened Harvey with assault and death. This is democratically unacceptable. And it is democratically disturbing that he can freely say this without any sanction. A free and fair environment is needed for democracy to function well. While conflicts or differences of opinion are normal in democracies, a hostile threat is not. For this, agnostic politics is important, not antagonistic politics. In addition, Milk's murder as a result of a hate crime and White's very light sentence is a big negative in terms of law. Showing them to the audience at the end of the movie is an important document in terms of human rights violations for that period.
  There are many factors that feed these negatives. The main source of these negatives is the gaps in the political and legal system. The pressure and ideological apparatus of the state feeds these negativities. The police, a repressive apparatus, worked to suppress the voices of these people. Although this is a difficult situation in terms of democracy, the indifferent attitude of the police towards hate crimes feeds them. The film also shows that homosexual individuals are discriminated against through ideological apparatus such as the family and the church. It is strikingly stated throughout the film that Briggs harshly excludes these people in the name of protecting family values. Similarly, the interviews Anita Bryant gave at the church are important. Through institutions such as the family and the church, these people were sought to be excluded from the political, social and economic sphere. However, the punishment given to White is also an incentive for such crimes. Individuals organized demonstrations and made their voices heard in the face of these negativities. For Harvey, the effort to show their existence and obtain their rights rather than election is remarkable throughout the film. However, he appeared in front of the media with Briggs for the 'proposition 6' vote. This is important to the public, that is, they have actively worked to get the rights. In the face of these negativities, the structure of the characters in the film is important. Milk was more radical than the people around him. According to him, if Asians have Asian representatives and Blacks have Black representatives, gays need a gay representative. For this reason, it is stated in the movie that Milk also wants a radical democracy rather than liberal democracy. However, the silence of LGBT individuals who were wealthy and powerful at that time bothers Harvey. Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that this is a fact that still persists today.
   Despite everything, Milk's active politics also sheds light on us for a better political system. Having a broad spectrum of democracy is important for protecting human rights. It showed that democracy can exist together with differences. However, it has been shown that the most important equality is political equality, so that others can also be achieved. Although conflict and differences are normal for democracy, it is shown throughout the movie that it can be achieved by communicating with people, not hostile.
  As a result, the film has shown us the structure of the period in a striking way. The film partly has a documentary character from time to time, it was able to convey the political and social situation of the period to us. It is gratifying for us that the movie shows the positive aspects as well as the negative aspects. As hope is important for our lives, it is one of the most beautiful messages that hope is important in our democracies.

 

 

 

 

References

Dahl, R. A. (2021). Neden Demokrasi? Demokrasi Üzerine (s. 63). içinde Ankara: Phoenix.

Dahl, R. A. (2021). Neden Demokrasi? Demokrasi Üzerine (s. 64). içinde Ankara: Phoenix.

Sartori, G. (2014). G. Sartori içinde, Demokrasi Teorisine Geri Dönüş (s. 28). Bursa: Sentez.