Director Gus Van Sant, whose biopic about openly gay politician Harvey Milk features an ensemble cast led by Oscar winnner Sean Penn. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images)

The story has all of the attributes of a Hollywood screenplay: there’s a heroic outsider, fighting the odds and triumphing; there are steamy tales of sex and romance; and there’s a shocking ending.

But the story of how a biopic about Harvey Milk made it to the big screen is almost as epic as the man’s life. Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman both expressed an interest in portraying the charismatic politician at one point; Oliver Stone mentioned he’d like to direct. But film studios balked at bringing such a project to middle American multiplexes, given the subject matter: Milk was the first openly gay politician elected in America. Milk was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, and was fatally shot a year later by a homophobic city councillor. There was no way to tell Milk’s story and shy away from the gay issues.

"There are only about three name gay actors. And the way films work today, you need a name actor in order to get financing and press attention. You could try to get a gay actor, but then you’d have less of a name attached and no possibility of money."

— Gus Van Sant

Now, a quarter century after the feature-length documentary The Times of Harvey Milk — which won an Oscar in 1985 — director Gus Van Sant has produced a dramatic version of Milk’s life. Titled simply Milk, the film features a superb ensemble cast, led by Oscar winner Sean Penn in the lead role. According to Van Sant, the difficulty in getting the film made was not due to homophobia.

“I don’t think it’s political,” Van Sant says during a recent telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “I think it’s monetary. If gay figures turned out to be as profitable as action figures, we’d see a lot more of them. If it turns out to be a way to make money, [the studios will] go for it [more often].”

Van Sant would know a thing or two about gay themes, ideas and characters. In 1991, Van Sant made what many would argue is his greatest film: My Own Private Idaho, in which Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix play hustlers with a tortured romantic relationship. Van Sant had come to international attention two years earlier with Drugstore Cowboy (1989), about a group of addicts (led by Matt Dillon) who travel across America robbing pharmacies to sate their drug appetites. In the intervening years, Van Sant has crafted a unique and versatile body of work, leaping between commercially viable studio films — Good Will Hunting (1997) and Finding Forrester (2000) — and more experimental independent features, like Gerry (2002), Elephant (2003) and Paranoid Park (2007).

Milk is a clear effort on Van Sant’s part to popularize a marginalized figure, and to keep the film audience-friendly. “I was sort of amazed at how many people didn’t know about him,” Van Sant says. “His story really is very impressive and inspirational.”

Harvey Milk's first campaign button, when he ran for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1973. (Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

Harvey Milk migrated from New York to the gay mecca of San Francisco in the early ‘70s to live a freer and more open life. The film follows Milk from his beginnings as a small businessman in San Fran to an activist to elected official. In telling Milk’s story, Van Sant knew that it would have to be set against the backdrop of the entire civil rights movement, as well as be true to the feel of the ‘70s. The art department on Milk played a crucial role, explains Van Sant, studying TV documentaries about the Castro district of San Francisco in that time period. “It was important that we got those styles right,” says Van Sant.

It helped that many of the people who had actually known Milk wanted to be a part of the film production; they came to the set and offered their input. A number of Milk’s friends and colleagues actually appear in the film, as extras or in bit parts playing themselves.

There is a certain irony in Van Sant producing a heart-warming film about one of the gay community’s most beloved heroes. Van Sant was one of the directors who defined the New Queer Cinema that emerged in the early ‘90s, a movement that included Todd Haynes and Tom Kalin. This group rejected the idea that gay filmmakers had to create positive role models for the big screen. It was a fresh and frank way of analyzing gay representations, and critics lauded the move away from positive-image politics.

Milk, however, is surely one of the most heroic — and by extension, positive — gay figures imaginable. Has Van Sant suddenly become an activist himself?

“You know, I never really thought of myself as one before. I got involved with some causes, but never in a big way. It’s just not the type of person that I am. But involvement with this film has made me much more likely to go to a protest rally or lend my support to a press conference. What Harvey Milk did was obviously very important — he made a huge difference in people’s lives, fighting for the basic human rights of so many.”

Actor Sean Penn, left, portrays Harvey Milk, and Victor Garber plays San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in a scene from Milk. (Focus Features/Associated Press)

Van Sant concedes, however, that making Milk was an elaborate balancing act. He wanted to take the story to the mainstream without selling out the spirit of Harvey Milk or concealing what was going on in the gay milieu at the time — that is, a lot of casual sex.

“I didn’t hold anything back. I had actually imagined putting in a couple of really intense sex scenes, perhaps even something at a bathhouse. But you know, when I was filming, I didn’t go too far in that direction, because it didn’t seem to serve the story well. Sex wasn’t really the energy of the movie, even if it had been the energy of the movement at that time.”

Van Sant says he pondered trying to cast gay actors in gay roles for Milk. But then he decided to proceed with no regard for sexual preference, casting straight men (like Penn and James Franco) in gay roles, and gay actors in some of the film’s straight parts.

“The trouble is, there are really only about three name gay actors. And the way films work today, you need a name actor in order to get financing and press attention. You could try to get a gay actor, but then you’d have less of a name attached and no possibility of money.

“As well as a brilliant performance, Sean Penn brought a great deal to Milk.”

Milk opened in Toronto on Nov. 26, and will appear in the rest of the country starting Dec. 5.

Matthew Hays is a writer based in Montreal and the author of The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers, which won a 2008 Lambda Literary Award.