Sean Penn: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
3. Harvey Milk - Milk
When it was announced that Gus Van Sant was stepping out of the indie realm again to direct a biopic of renowned politician and gay rights activist, Harvey Milk, skeptics would have been right to reach for their copy of 1984's Oscar-winning documentary, The Life And Times Of Harvey Milk, and shrugged this one off as being something of a political chancer. Using this doc as one of his primary sources, Penn embodied the character and spirit of the self-styled Mayor Of Castro Street, playing the man with camp and savvy style. Aided by Van Sant's eye-catching period direction, character play - Penn's best moments include scenes where he agitates Josh Brolin's straight-laced fellow politician, Dan White, the man who would soon be his assassin - his interpretation of Milk garnered yet more plaudits and, of course, his second Academy Award. As it stands, this remains the last great Penn performance.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
