Dustin Lance Black, who won original screenplay for "Milk, " also gave an impassioned speech in favor of gay rights.

CNN: 'Slumdog' makes history, sweeps Oscars

In March, Dustin Lance Black's play about California's Proposition 8, which blocked same-sex marriage, was performed in Los Angeles with an all-star cast.

CNN: Can Obama use Hollywood's soft power?

Eastwood and the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black have re-created that period in the nineteen-twenties and thirties when a righteous young man with a stentorian style could electrify a nation.

NEWYORKER: The Man in Charge