'The Times of Harvey Milk,' a superlative documentary, turns 40

One of the best archival documentaries ever made arrived just six years after Milk's assassination.

I first saw The Times of Harvey Milk in high school. I don’t remember what class it was, probably history or Social Studies or something else, but watching the film was certainly the first time I ever heard Harvey Milk’s name.

Milk was, of course, a fascinating figure of history: One of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, and a man who ran on a platform of gay rights — and much more than that — at a time when such a thing was controversial, even in San Francisco.

That’s where Milk, who came from Long Island and had moved to the Castro district in 1982, was elected to the Board of Supervisors- only to be assassinated, less than a year later, by one of his colleagues, Dan White. On the same day, White also shot San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, in the sort of Shakespearean political violence that’s practically unheard of in American history, outside of duels in the early 19th century.

The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein, was released in October of 1984, 40 years ago this week. The film masterfully assembled archival footage from throughout Milk’s life and career, including his charismatic speeches, along with a recording Milk had made, only to be played in the event of his assassination. There are also plenty of talking-head interviews with his contemporaries, like Anne Kronenberg.

This might sound like pure documentary formula, and with some hindsight, it sort of looks that way. But the film does something fascinating: It puts Milk’s murder at about the 60-minute mark of the 90-minute running time, spending the rest on the aftermath of his death, Dan White’s trial, his insufficient punishment, and the subsequent “White Night Riots.” In doing so, Epstein’s film allows the outrage to congeal- and let’s not forget, The Times of Harvey Milk arrived just six years after Milk and Moscone were murdered.

The Times of Harvey Milk won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1984, right at the height of the AIDS academic, and at a time when LGBTQ liberation politics were far from advanced and films about gay people didn’t win many Oscars.

For many years afterward, there were attempts to make a Milk biopic, including one version in the 1990s that was to star Robin Williams, who spent much of his career playing gay for comedic purposes, whether in standup routines or The Birdcage.