Milk (film) devoutly Christian". "Milk" had received accolades from several film critics organizations. Milk (film) Milk is a 2008 American biographical film based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, the film stars Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White, a city supervisor who assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone. The film was released to much acclaim and earned
Harvey Milk as a case where a murderer escapes justice because he binged on junk food, simplifying White's lack of political savvy, his relationships with George Moscone and Harvey Milk, and what "San Francisco Chronicle" columnist Herb Caen described as pandemic police "dislike of homosexuals". Dan White served a little more than five years for the double homicide of Moscone and Milk. On October 21, 1985 (a year and a half after his release from prison), White was found dead by carbon monoxide poisoning in a running car in his ex-wife's garage. He was 39 years old. His defense attorney told reporters