Sean Penn delivers one of his most intrepid and awe-inspiring performances in “Milk,” filmmaker Gus Van Sant’s revival of the last eight years in the life of the first openly gay man elected to public office in America. Harvey Milk became member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, following several unsuccessful attempts. An outstandingly joyful, yet strong-minded gay-rights advocate, Milk played an important role in the battle against social bigotry, but, unfortunately, he did not live long enough to witness the changes he and his supporters have influenced.

Exactly three decades after his assassination, Sean Penn and the movie’s helmer take Harvey Milk’s story to the big screens and introduce the historical figure as a blithe individual who faces a prejudiced world.

After Milk moves to San Francisco together with his lover, Scott Smith (James Franco), and opens a camera store, he becomes the representative of the neighborhood’s gay people due to his lighthearted nature and strength of mind.

Thus, he soon decides to run for public office and in spite of the fact that he does not succeed, he keeps on trying until he is elected city supervisor.

The plot concentrates on Milk’s interactions with other people so as to point out the impediments that he bumped into, as well as the nature of his relationship with his colleagues, particularly with Dan White (Josh Brolin), a member of the board who would murder Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in November 1978.

As the film moves on, we become aware of Harvey Milk’s significant contribution to the advantages we benefit from nowadays. And Sean Penn couldn’t have done his job better.