Crying over blood-spilt MILK?

Harvey Milk learned his lesson: You’ve got to give them Hope. Apparently, Barack Obama was listening; apparently, Danny Boyle cribbed his notes. Obama co-opted Hope as a one-word campaign slogan. Boyle exploited it — admittedly, quite expertly — for a Best Picture Oscar®. Of course, the predicament for the President is how to transform Hope into meaningful action. The filmmaker had no such qualms.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is only a movie. Thus, the public allows its message to go unchallenged. Rather than question the inadequacies of the main character’s evolution, the (moral?) majority accepts the film’s celebration of faith-based passivity. In this tale, you needn’t even pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you just need to trust that your suffering/goodness/intransigence will be rewarded, not because you’ve actively earned it, but because… it is written. Well, what is the takeaway from that? Accept Fate? Isn’t this just an un-ironic, cinematic adaptation of Bobby McFerrin‘s lyrics: “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” 

I put far greater stock in MILK, a movie that confirms our need for Hope while underscoring the lead’s — anyone’s — need for conviction, action and sacrifice. Hope, in this light, is what you make of it, not what it makes of you. Harvey Milk is a hero because he refused to accept the status quo trusting in a better tomorrow. He struggled mightily to improve the future while accepting the present’s shortcomings. The slain supervisor didn’t just dip in excrement to get an autograph, he swam against the current to his own triumph… and demise.

Some may argue that SLUMDOG‘s message is that Love conquers all. But even Love requires action; it doesn’t just come to us. We earn Love’s victories by constantly championing its cause. Harvey did. That’s why in a two-way race, MILK gets my vote. Early and often.