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The history of social change is often understood through the lives of larger-than-life individuals who charge headlong into a wall of opposition and somehow break through. No matter how determined and hard-headed, however, such individuals never prevail without the crowds of lesser-known, though equally tireless, activists behind them.

Milk, starring Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking) as San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay man elected to a major political office, attempts a refreshing behind-the-scenes depiction of the individual's catalytic role in social change.

Toronto-born actress Alison Pill, as lesbian organizer Anne Kronenberg, and actor Emile Hirsch, as young hustler-turned gay rights agitator Cleve Jones, fuse forces in a scene from Milk. - photo courtesy of Focus Features

Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) uses Penn's intimate Oscar-winning performance as a vehicle through which to chronicle San Francisco's – and America's – social and political climate in the 1970s, focusing on the synthesis of movements that made groundbreaking change possible in the fight for gay rights.

The film opens on Milk's 40th birthday, while he still lived the life of a semi-closeted, politically-conservative office worker in New York.

The drama unfolds over the next (and last) eight years of his life, beginning with his move to San Francisco's Castro district. The Castro was the hub of gay counterculture at the time and served as backdrop for much of the film.

Milk's rapid emergence from relative invisibility to conspicuous gay advocate is put in context through actual archival footage of brutal police raids on gay bars, references to homophobic censorship and a recount of the vicious witch hunts waged against gay educators by fascist politicians.

In addition to Milk's personal bravery amidst such violent social turbulence, his success lay in his ability to unite disparate elements of his new community. Accumulating political capital through a successful boycott of Coors beer alongside the Teamster's Union, Milk went on to build a political base of immigrant families, seniors and other marginalized voices.

Throughout the film, supporting characters are seen working equally hard, sleeping just as little and risking almost as much.

These individuals include Milk's campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg, played by Canadian TV and stage actress Alison Pill, and a young activist named Cleve Jones, played by Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild). Their meeting midway through the movie symbolizes how influential the co-operation between lesbians and gay men was during a time when patriarchal attitudes and discrimination against lesbians still predominated in male-dominated gay organizations.

While these characters are not developed as deeply as Penn's Milk, they clearly represent part of the backbone that gave the gay movement its strength. Even more profound and influential is the throng of extras who portray the crowds of nameless drag queens, gay men, lesbians and others who filled the streets to oppose the persecution of human beings simply because of who they love or who they sleep with.

The film's lesson, it seems, is that profound social change does not come merely from the crusading individual. It is only achieved through co-operation and the embrace of diversity.

And Milk recognized that.