Pride (2014)

October 2, 2014 12:47 PM

During the UK coal miner's strike in 1984, a group of gays and lesbians in London decide to raise funds to support the miners, in a show of solidarity against the tactics of Margaret Thatcher's government. When the national union won't accept their donations, they contact a small village in Wales directly, where an initially hesitant reception gradually opens hearts and minds all around. A warm hearted comedy, chock full of great British actors including Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, and Andrew Scott.

Extras:

All Out! Dancing in Dulais - documentary about the real life people and events in the film.

Pride and Prejudice - writer Mark Simpson, who was part of the group at the time, reminisces on the events and his experience seeing the film all these years later.

Currently 92% at Rotten Tomatoes

Some of the music featured in the film:
A fundraising ball is headlined by Bronski Beat, one of the only openly gay pop acts of the 1980s.

Billy Bragg: "There is Power in a Union"

Browen Lewis sings the traditional protest song "Bread and Roses"

posted by dnash (13 comments total)

I just saw this last night and really loved it. It's in the vein of that "Billy Elliott," "Brassed Off," "The Full Monty" vibe.
posted by dnash at 1:44 PM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

This isn't coming to Kingston until next week but I AM ALL OVER IT.
posted by Kitteh at 2:18 PM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

I saw it last week and absolutely loved it. I cried when they sang "Bread & Roses" and at the end the audience applauded - very unusual for the UK, particularly in east London.

I thought the film captured the 80s very, very well. I felt the visceral hatred for Thatcher every time they showed her on the news. There was a lot of earnestness in the 80s, but it wasn't all po-faced politics - we had a lot of fun too.
posted by essexjan at 3:43 PM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, thanks for drawing my attention to this movie. I'm going to go see it now!
posted by latkes at 12:49 PM on October 3, 2014

(well, not NOW, I'm at work, but...)
posted by latkes at 12:49 PM on October 3, 2014

Looked into this a bit, and it seems Bronski Beat really did play a benefit raising 5,500 pounds, and there were actually several such groups around the country. Wow!

Looking forward to seeing this -- we plan to take our son and some of his buddies to see it this week.
posted by chapps at 8:13 PM on October 5, 2014

Just saw it. Fucking brilliant. At the end I was nigh bouncing in my seat with THIS IS A THING THAT HAPPENED IN THE REAL WORLD DURING MY LIFETIME!

Rot in Hell, Margaret Thatcher. We partied when you died.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:15 PM on October 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

My main complaint is that I wish it had been 15 minutes longer. There were multiple beats where something basically had to be conveyed in a flash cut that would have been even more effective if they'd been able to take even 5 or 10 seconds to develop them more fully. (Frex, I wish the Lesbians Against Pit Closures had gotten 10 seconds to discuss even one example of women-specific issues related to the strike.)

Overall I loved it and plan to see it again. Definitely happy-blubbed a bit.
posted by Lexica at 5:12 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Just watched it. It was fun and sweet and I can't come up with a complaint about it, which is weird for me. It seems like maybe a really great after school special version of facts but that's not a criticism. It's just simplifying and a bit heavy but clearly on purpose. You can tell the older actors really were enjoying getting in a last word on the strike and Thatcher, and I enjoyed their enjoyment. Thanks for the recommendation.
posted by latkes at 10:16 PM on October 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

The day after seeing it, we keep having "And another thing I liked about it was ________" conversations. There were so many wonderful actors in it, and due to the British Movie Effect I felt like I recognized most of them (but often couldn't remember what I'd seen them in). And discussing it afterwards was fun — I got a point for having recognized somebody my husband hadn't recognized.

Also: somebody please cast Jessica Gunning as Boudicca. She was awesome as Siân James and I'd like to see her in a chariot fighting Romans.
posted by Lexica at 10:46 AM on October 11, 2014

Here's an article about the screwed up R rating for this movie. (If you haven't seen This Film is Not Yet Rated, it's a great expose of how screwy and undemocratic and consistently homophobic the ratings system is.)

It seemed like a cultural shift that's been happening for a while, and I did see it in Berkeley, but I was struck that there were a lot of straight people in the audience. Likewise when I saw Love is Strange recently. I definitely remember a recent time when there were few visibly straight people in the audience of a "queer" film.

I think this would be a great movie for younger people, like high school classes, so I'm glad straight people are seeing it but bummed about the idiotic R rating.
posted by latkes at 3:20 PM on October 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Some of the music featured in the film

This was great. A lot of other musical references too. Bromley's new record collection: the Eurythmics 1984 soundtrack; Dare!; The Stranglers. Posters in the "we don't have any gay pop stars" music company reception: Elton John, Soft Cell.

My main complaint is that I wish it had been 15 minutes longer.

The and-then-suddenly-AIDS beats in the third act felt a bit rushed to me. It had felt odd to me until then that the film had mentioned AIDS only in the context of intolerance -- Bromley watching the "don't die of ignorance" PSA with his family, the miners' jokes -- but hadn't showed the gay community talking about it at all.

I was 14 at the time and all the TV clips they showed in the film were immediately and viscerally memorable. Especially Thatcher.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:51 AM on August 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

God, this is a wonderful film. I cry just thinking about it.
posted by brainwane at 8:47 AM on August 14, 2021