Pride

Pride tells the true story of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign of 1984. That summer, in Margaret Thatcher’s England, the National Union of Mineworkers was on strike and a group of gay activists decided to raise money to support them. The union did not want to be associated with the group, so the London activists took their donations directly to a small mining village in Wales. The flamboyant gays from the big city and the traditional-minded, small town miners formed an uneasy alliance that eventually grew into a strong example of solidarity and the persuasive power of collectivism.

The British film industry loves to make movies like Pride, and American audiences can’t get enough of them. Any film about working-class English, Irish, or Scottish folks who speak with thick (but not too thick) brogues triumphing over adversity will be eaten up when it crosses the pond. If the trailer hints at ribald humor involving older people, you can guarantee solid box office. From Whisky Galore (1949) to The Full Monty (1997); from The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) to Calendar Girls (2003), we never seem to tire of these movies. Perhaps because there are so many films in this broad genre, I’m often reluctant to rush out and see them. These movies follow a fairly predictable formula, and often feature the same actors playing the same types of roles. But the recipe these films follow, with their undeniably talented cast members and other dependable ingredients, almost always yields a satisfying result--the cinematic equivalent to excellent comfort food. The Britcom style hit its groove in the ‘80s and ‘90s with films like Local Hero (1983) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). That their template hasn’t changed much in the subsequent decades isn’t really a problem--especially for a 1980s period piece like Pride. Part of why the film works so well is that the uncomplicated, slightly outmoded approach to storytelling feels entirely correct for the time period.

Pride has clear-cut characters that lack complexity but not personality. We get to know the individual heroes (both real and fictional) as people rather than types. Unfortunately this is not true in regards to the film’s ostensible villain, a thinly drawn caricature whose lack of real menace makes for pretty low dramatic stakes. Yet despite the lack of a strong antagonist, Pride engenders tangible tension. We often feel unease as these young gay men and women venture into territory that has traditionally been inhospitable and dangerous for them. That we see little of that danger actually come to fruition is perhaps not an issue. Certainly those of us who were alive in the 1980s (or any decade up until the most recent one) haven’t forgotten the sense of fear and oppression gay people lived with on a daily basis, so perhaps we don’t need to see it dramatized on screen once more. We know the outcome of this story (even if we’re unfamiliar with this specific minor chapter in the history of the labor and gay movements) so most attempts at creating a sense of doom or failure would likely come across as contrived or heavy-handed.

I don’t mean to imply that every scene in this reality-based film comes off credibly. Most of the miners look and act more like movie characters than actual guys who work in a coal mine. But I appreciate the way the film goes out of its way to avoid over-playing the charged situations it depicts. Director Matthew Warchus and writer Stephen Beresford take few liberties with the real life story they tell. We get a palpable understanding of the value of unions and the importance of tolerance without a bunch of overbearing monologues or on-the-nose exchanges. This is a celebratory film rather than a hard-hitting one. If Ken Loach made a movie of this story I doubt it would be called “the feel-good film of the year,” as Pride clearly will be. I have little doubt that the Ken Loach approach would result in a stronger, more memorable film, but I can’t begrudge these filmmakers--they have created a winning and somewhat inspiring entry in the grand tradition of triumphant, British underdog movies.