Review: Pride

Befittingly openhearted and irresistibly pleasing, Pride depicts the unlikely alliance between the workers and families involved in the 1984 miners' strike and the little-remembered LGSM (Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners), who were one of their biggest fundraisers.

The film opens in June 1984 on the day of the Gay Pride March in London. By this time, the strike had entered its 4th month with the government moving ahead to close 20 pits at the cost of over 20,000 jobs lost. Then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was holding fast to her position as a good, firm leader who would not be swayed by the strikers. Northern Irishman and gay activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) feels a kinship with the embattled blue-collar labourers who, much like the gay and lesbian community, have been disenfranchised by the conservative government.

Mark convinces a small group of friends and fellow marchers to form the LGSM and collect money to help the miners' families. Included in the group are Mike (Joe Gilgun), bookshop owner Gethin (Andrew Scott), his partner actor Jonathan Blake (Dominic West), and Joe (George Mackay), a still-closeted 20-year-old living with his parents. After their attempts to contact the National Union of Mineworkers are rebuffed, they decide to contact the communities directly, at last scoring success with the Dulais Valley lodge in South Wales. The Dulais representative Dai (Paddy Considine) is surprised by tentatively welcomes them and their support, even winning over the attendees at a gay club with his sincere gratitude: "When you're in a battle against an enemy so much stronger than you, to find out you had a friend you never knew existed - that's the best feeling in the world."

Yet Dai is only one man and when he invites the LGSM to Dulais, their presence is met with expected hostility and wariness. Of course, relations soon thaw with committee members Hefina (Imelda Staunton), Sian (Jessica Gunning), Gwen (Menna Trussler), and Cliff (Bill Nighy) leading the charge whilst the uppity Maureen (Lisa Palfrey) does her best to stem the tide of support for the "perverted" outsiders.

There's an awful lot going on with the film - not surprising given its crowd of characters - and whilst it's admirable to include all of the elements, it might have been recommended to jettison one or two narrative strands. As it stands, there's the rising AIDS crisis, Joe's inevitable confrontation with his family, Gethin's struggle to reconcile with the mother who shunned him 16 years earlier, wife and mother Sian coming into her own (she would, in fact, go on to become a Welsh Labour Party politician) - each of which merit a movie of their own.

These are minor quibbles as is any attempt to criticise the film for its broad strokes or sentimentality. As with The Full Monty, Billy Elliot and Made in Dagenham, Pride is very much an inspirational, feel-good film that champions personal growth within a social and political framework. Whether it be Dominic West's Jonathan exuberantly strutting his stuff to Shirley and Company's "Shame Shame Shame," Nighy and Staunton preparing sandwiches in near silence, or the buoyant, lump-in-throat climax, Pride displays genuine affection for its characters and delivers its message of solidarity with minimal didacticism.

Pride

Directed by: Matthew Warchus

Written by: Stephen Beresford

Starring: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, Andrew Scott, Ben Schnetzer, Joe Gilgun, George Mackay, Jessica Gunning, Lisa Palfrey, Menna Trussler