This movie is so biased that it actually condones and justifies the SF rioting. I understand that the verdict in the White trial was viewed by many as a failure of the justice system, but it doesn't justify rioting. I would think anybody with a level head on their shoulders would admit that...but not the director or talking heads in this film. Harvey Milk would be ashamed. How on earth did this manage to win an Oscar? Ridiculous.
shareThe point the film makes about the riot hardly justifies it. If you'd listened more carefully, someone even mentions that this is hardly what Harvey Milk would have wanted. It does not try to justify the riots, but instead explain the motives behind what had already happened. There was a riot. I think it's reasonable to explore the reasons behind it.
shareI listened perfectly fine. There was one mention of the fact that Harvey would not have wanted that sort of violence, but that was it. Aside from that, the film definitely justified the rioting.
shareAgain, it wasn't a matter of justifying the riot, but rather exploring the reasons behind why it happened. That's not unreasonable. Yes, there was only one mention. But it was indeed mentioned.
shareI also thought the filmmakers did not go out of their way to glorify the violence. They showed people breaking windows and doing other destructive things, and they condoned the peaceful marches at the time of Harvey's funeral. Of course the movie was made from a point of view that was honoring Harvey Milk, but it did not glorify or excuse the riots, IMO.
share"The film did not justify the rioting"... quite right...it was the the sentence in the courtroom that justified it! When there is a major travesty of justice, it is not that surprising that people will riot in response.
In Toronto, in 1981, the police raided 5 gay bath houses (saunas) on the same night and arrested over 300 people as "found-ins of a common bawdy house".
The next night, 3000 gays marched in the streets, torched two police cars and a streetcar. After years of harassment from the police, it was time to make them understand that enough is enough. The crowd chanted "No More SH*T! Gays Fight Back!" While you are perhaps shocked that I condone violence (basically loss of property) this is NOTHING in comparison to the violence of the system against various minority groups. In fact, when the police raided, they were offered keys by the owners of the bath-houses to allow them into the various private rooms. They deferred, much preferring to bash in the doors with sledgehammers. They trashed one joint so badly (even destroying televisions) that the place closed down because the insurance wouldn't foot the bill for police violence... funny how people will complain of the gays' violent reaction to what was already violence on the part of the police. The police have carte blanche to do whatever they wish and the average citizen has to just swallow his pride and TAKE IT? HA! The reaction of the gays in Toronto to the police violence against them almost guaranteed that the police would not be stupid enough to pull this same kind of blunder again. Because whether you believe it or not, violence is unfortunately about the only thing that makes the people who run the system sit up and pay attention to you!
"While you are perhaps shocked that I condone violence (basically loss of property) this is NOTHING in comparison to the violence of the system against various minority groups."
I completely agree pogostiks. Violence is completely necessary in cases like this. Would people complaining about "violence" be complaining had the Jews risen up in the night and trashed every store with a swastika in the window and beat up Nazis? No. This isn't even violence in my opinion.
"A riot is the language of the unheard." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
There was also the District Attorney, who said the Mob behaviour was a disappointing blow to the Gay Rights Movement, and he would support the arrest of people in the Riots.
I honestly can't see how the Film supported the Riots, I thought it seemed to be very clear that they were a poor venting of anger that lost us some sympathy. I can also see a similar thing happening with some misguided boycotts over Prop 8, like the El Coyote restaurant boycott I felt was very poorly thought-out. This movie was extremely enlightening in the wake of Prop 8. I mean, the part were you see Gay people going up to that Old Woman and that Asian couple and asking them how they were voting and then tried to understand and relieve the Woman's fears and try and get the Asian couple who hadn't thought about Prop 6 to understand the issue. That was the kind of action we didn't nearly enough of in the No on 8 campaign.
Dead Like Me, a (Wonder)falling Firefly.
It won an Oscar because it was a brilliant documentary, plain and simple. It was NOT an op-ed, like the Michael Moore nonsence that passes itself as a documentary in today's times, as you have suggested. In no way does this film lean for or against the San Fran riots. It simply shows that they happened, and why they might have occured. The riots were relevant to the project simply because of the subject they were exploring, which was Harvey Milk. There is no bias in this film, regarding the riots, at all.
"Religion is the opium of the people" - Karl Marx
If you really think the film was "biased" and "justified" the rioting, then no amount of intelligent conversation will be able to show you how truly wrong you are.
Easily one of the top ten least intelligent posts I've ever seen on IMDB.
Accusations of "bias" are bound to come up in any documentary on a controversial matter, and your accusations are proof of this. They have no foundation whatsoever, with the only reasoning seemingly that the film "portrays" the riots and attempts to explain the conditions in which they arose.
The only reason I can assume this even occurred to you is because you were purposefully looking for bias.
First thing...everything is biased. Everything. To say that it is biased is like saying this has been made by human beings. Secondly, you say there is one line about what Harvey would have wanted. You are correct. But, don't you think that single line carries tremendous weight within the film. It is said by a good friend of his who is capable of seeing both sides of an issue (Briggs Inititative) and now she says that she sees the justification for violence but does not chose that. I believe that the exact line is something like cooler heads prevailed. This film is amazing on some many levels it frightens me. This film changed my life and I must have seen it over a hundred times. These filmakers have gone through and chosen people from all over the spectrum to tell the story of Harvey Milk. Including his enemies who are allowed to speak themselves through old interviews. Yes it is biased...and yes it is the one of the most brilliant film I have ever seen in my life...but I guess that makes me biased...
Damn you...I'm a gonna have to watch this film again...
Well put.
shareYou're ridiculous. Five years in prison for pre-meditated murder? Everyone's entitled to their own opinion blah blah. But most people with a soul and a heart beating in their chest feel that this situation most certainly called for a riot. And I would agree.
shareFive years for first degree murder is obscene. And so is rioting. You are both wrong.
shareViolence is never justified, thats true.
But to sit there and take no action when a man intentionally shoots and murders two of his peers is just as criminal.
Our system may be pretty good in as far people have some basic freedoms, but that doesn't mean you should live within the confines of laws and ideas set by crusty old white dudes who hate you and your mom.
Good for the rioters I say. Sitting down and talking obviously didn't work as White was released in 5 years.
While watching this in class, I don't know if I ever wanted to shut yell *beep* at the top my lungs more. How can this stuff happen? I know it's not the PC term, but this is absolutely retarded.
I was happy to hear that White had committed yet another murder less than year after his release (killed himself!). Not that I support the death penalty, but sometimes it just makes people feel better. Knowing that a guy who kills two peers execution style then blames it on "tension" and goes as far as to defend his window climbing and pocketful of bullets as "normal activity" no longer lives, is justice enough for me
I thought they showed the riot as a response that Harvey Milk wouldn't have approved of, and which actually lost the gay movement some sympathy. On the other hand, they also explained it as a natural extension of anger.
What the documentary DOESN'T show is that the police raided the Castro district in retribution on the same night and assaulted many gay people who weren't even participants in the riot. (Search for the "White Night Riots" and read about it.)
Personally, I found it absurd that property damage would be punished "to the fullest extent of the law" while a homicidal maniac had received minimal punishment earlier that day. The rioters broke some windows and set fire to some police cars, all of which have been replaced. Compared with Dan White's crimes, this was a trivial response.
This doco is incredibly biased, show me one that is not.
We were only shown the views form Harveys peers, the narrator was a prominent gay man, and it was funded predominantly by the gay community.
It is still a great watch and tells an engaging story that managed to capture the hearts of straight and gay people across the globe, and that my friends is why it won an oscar.
If that 'Love God And Are 100% Proud Signature' makes you sick, make THIS your signature!
"We were only shown the views form Harveys peers, the narrator was a prominent gay man, and it was funded predominantly by the gay community."
OMG! No!!!!!!!!! What's next a movie made by blacks with a black narrator? Or a movie about white Christians narrated by a white Christian? It's the end of the world I tell you.
"I found it absurd that property damage would be punished "to the fullest extent of the law" while a homicidal maniac had received minimal punishment earlier that day"
It's beyond absurd. But sadly there are many bigoted, prejudiced, ignorant and hateful people around.
"I'm aroused and confused."
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"This movie is so biased that it actually condones and justifies the SF rioting. I understand that the verdict in the White trial was viewed by many as a failure of the justice system, but it doesn't justify rioting. I would think anybody with a level head on their shoulders would admit that...but not the director or talking heads in this film. Harvey Milk would be ashamed. How on earth did this manage to win an Oscar? Ridiculous."
Your showing your bias or should I just say prejudice. That SF riot is probably the only thing that told the world that letting a man get away with a double homicide was absolutely unacceptable! You can be assured Dan White being an ex-cop had much to do with that court decision. A riot was the only way to tell the power status quo that his actions were UNACCEPTABLE!
Live Long and Prosper!
You can be assured Dan White being an ex-cop had much to do with that court decision. A riot was the only way to tell the power status quo that his actions were UNACCEPTABLE!
So you're suggesting what, then? That the prosecution "threw" the case because Dan White was once a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood of Law Enforcement? That the jury was so in awe of his previous job title that they granted him leniency?
A more likely explanation is that the prosecution stumbled through a series of miscues, exacerbated by the fact that the murder victims weren't terribly likable guys to begin with. The DA (wisely or unwisely) refused to put Moscone's weeping widow on the stand (a surefire way to score sympathy points with the jury) because of the late mayor's very public profligacy. And they weren't about to drag any of Milk's paramours into the courtroom.
White's defense team basically found a loophole from an old 1959 court case that no one could have anticipated at the time and did a bang up job convincing the jury that it should apply.
Basically, the defense team shrewdly defended their client and the prosecution committed a few too many unforced errors. It's the sort of thing that happens every day in courts across the country. On any other given day, the tables could have been reversed.
To justify civil unrest on the basis of an implied conspiracy that fails even the most facile logical examination is ignorant at best.
"So you're suggesting what, then? That the prosecution "threw" the case because Dan White was once a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood of Law Enforcement? That the jury was so in awe of his previous job title that they granted him leniency? "---UncleDick
Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.
Fraternal Brother of Law Enforcement= The Brotherhood of Freemasonry
Remember, Harvey Milk was not just homosexual, he was also Jewish. Despite the perceived financial success of the Jewish population, most of America are NOT partial toward Jews and look upon them as "outsiders". Do not be mislead by the Hollywood media, the jewish population is not considered mainstream at all in America! Harvey Milk was at a disadvantage two ways.
Live Long and Prosper!
Jews disadvantaged? Haven't heard that one b4, JK! I mean the most well off religious minority which the USA gave their own country(think the Mormons would get sovereignty over Utah?) and which the Us keeps stocked with the best weapons and military strategy... Again,compare it to the Mormons, who are very well off---Mormons can be ridiculed, if you d the same to a Jew and their state, you are a Nazi.I mean come on!
shareby N_of_Maud 1 hour ago (Mon May 16 2011 10:58:17) Ignore this User | Report Abuse
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Jews disadvantaged? Haven't heard that one b4, JK! I mean the most well off religious minority which the USA gave their own country(think the Mormons would get sovereignty over Utah?) and which the Us keeps stocked with the best weapons and military strategy... Again,compare it to the Mormons, who are very well off---Mormons can be ridiculed, if you d the same to a Jew and their state, you are a Nazi.I mean come on!
My response:
Yeah, I'm sticking by my statement. Police officers seem to be overwhelmingly Irish Catholic, WASP, and Italian Catholic. Then follows African -American, Hispanic American, Jewish, and then Asian in a much smaller percentage. Almost all of them heterosexual men and a small percentage of women. At least this is how I perceive it in the city I live in.
A Jewish homosexual just was not going to receive justice and probably more because he was homosexual.
Of course, I have no facts to back it up, it's just my own opinion.
Live Full & Die Empty. Tap Your Potential and Realise Your Dreams!
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