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(1999) Based on a true story, this crime drama is adapted from Emily Mann's play about the murder of Harvey Milk (Peter Coyote), the first openly gay City Supervisor in San Francisco, who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone (Stephen Young) in 1978.

While city employee Dan White (Timothy Daly) was found guilty of the crime, the charge was reduced from murder in the first degree to voluntary manslaughter when his lawyers claimed that White became emotionally unstable after eating too much junk food; this controversial and much-derided legal tactic became known as the "Twinkie Defense." White served five years in prison for the double murder before committing suicide in 1985.

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Cast

  • Peter Coyote.............................Harvey Milk
  • Tim Daly......................................Dan White
  • Stephen Young...............George Moscone
  • Amy Van Nostrand.........Mary Ann White
  • Khalil Kain......................Sister Boom Boom
  • Tyne Daly................................Goldie Judge

Credits

  • Directed by...............................Leon Ichaso

  • Screenplay by......................Michael Butler based on the play by Emily Mann

  • Produced by..................................Tim Daly

  • Premiered on Showtime on November 28, 1999

  • Running time: 98 minutes

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See Production Notes

Reviews:

Newsday:
"Showtime's electric film, with seemingly disjointed scenes, coalesce into an arresting whole: intimate moments, public spectacles, newsreel footage, even documentary testimony from real-life witnesses blended with dramatic scenes...Peter Coyote provides vibrant contrast as Milk."

LA Daily News:
"This Showtime film provocatively approaches the story from the killer's point of view... Execution of Justice is a film of many strengths, and just one of them is that it doesn't condescendingly deify Milk. In fact, he's merely a supporting character. Peter Coyote essays Milk as smart, compassionate and a little playful and refuses to romanticize his subject."

San Jose Mercury News:
"Execution of Justice can be quite compelling, thanks largely to clever use of testimony from the trial and to several terrific performances by the principle actors. Daly takes on the toughest role, that of White, and does well in the part of a man who is all surface and no depth... Coyote is persuasive as Milk, reminding viewers who have a rose-colored image of the man who became a martyr to the gay community that Milk was very much a politician with complex agendas."

San Francisco Examiner:
"Execution of Justice is a powerful, moving adaption of Emily Mann's play... Credit Daly with a wonderful performance that brings out the frustrated, pathetic nature of White... The film also gets a viscerally real but all too brief glimpse of Milk, as portrayed by Peter Coyote."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
"A provocative, worthwhile film...Haunting music and vivid backdrops frame the opening shots...Even those who know the history will be drawn into the innovative way the saga is filmed...The unraveling of his (White) life is portrayed in vivid performances by Daly, Coyote and Stephen Young."

The Denver Post:
"The inventive movie is compelling and well-acted... Daly appears convincing as White, a hollow man in an awful brown suit and hair. Peter Coyote is credible as Milk... The focus here is the contrast between Milk's focused, committed, passionate personality and White's ungrounded, unaware, uncertain character."

San Francisco Chronicle:
" The best thing about Execution of Justice is that it dares to make the bad guy, White, its protagonist, and then scrupulously refuses to inflate him.... Daly is a better actor than that eternal Wings credit could ever suggest... Daly is joined by Peter Coyote, who's pitch-perfect as Milk."

The Advocate:
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Coyote captures not only Milk's idealism and chutzpah but that rascally charm that helped him to reach beyond the gay electorate."

PlanetOut.com:
"It's Peter (E.T.) Coyote as Milk who steals the show whenever he's spotlighted. His Milk is a complex impersonation: a man of the (gay) people who's ruthlessly ambitious yet never less than magnetic and charming."
 

Images

Available on video

 

[ The Official Peter Coyote Web Site ]