barberic-695-574135 Just brilliant, a must watch movie. A true story that waited a long time to be told. Moving, funny, telling and entertaining. Cannot really fault this movie in any way. Good story, well acted and brilliant production. A movie that will make you laugh and make you cry. Will we be watching it again? Most definitely.

johnnyboyz I could never understand what everybody was supposed to be so 'proud' of when it came to homosexual identity, or LGBT rights. Was it the rise of the presence of the AIDS virus? Surely not. That society generally became more promiscuous? The fact that Judeo-Christian values copped one in the eye? Probably. Whatever the reason for the pride, it isn't answered in "Pride" - a colourful leftist wet-dream which is probably too long and, while ambitious, doesn't impact in the way it perhaps might have done if it were more focused and carried with it more of a directorial stamp.Homosexuality has, in essence, always been despised - irrespective of the era and irrespective of the civilisation. For centuries, it was outlawed around the world under religious dogma: Christianity; Islam; Hinduism... Then came the world's first atheist state in the form of the Soviet Union, whose women averaged four abortions in a lifetime but whose homosexuals were still criminalised. So much for socialist egalitarianism. In Cuba, run by the supposed poster-boy of the left at the time of this film's setting (the 1980's), Fidel Castro had homosexuals grossly maltreated.In the modern age, the ghost of Alan Turing looms large over western civilisation's moral compass when it comes to such people: a man with a mathematical mind so brilliant, it would be dishonest to say that it didn't contribute to the British war effort against the Nazi machine to the same extent as Wallace and Montgomery. Despite being a hero, he remained a pariah simply for being gay. All of this leads us to life in Britain in the penultimate decade of the last century, where "Pride" tells, firstly, the true story of young Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) - an LGBT and Communist activist who took pity on the mining communities' treatment by the government - and the more synthetic narrative of a twenty year old rube named Joe (George MacKay), who lives at home in what looks like an affluent Conservative Party stronghold and is beginning to realise he's gay. Primarily, "Pride" is interested in Ashton's trying to get together a makeshift relief-effort entitled LGSM (Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners) in order to help said miners as they struggle out of work. 'But why should anyone care about them?' asks somebody. "Because miners dig for coal, which produces power, which allows gay people like you to dance to Bananarama till 3 o'clock in the morning." Eventually, a community in South Wales hear of the group and Matthew Warchus' film moves to tell the story of the two parties coming together.Where the film is at its strongest is during the earlier phases of the miners, initially led by Paddy Considine's Dai, and Ashton's LGBT troupe hooking up. Set at a time when the political dichotomy in Britain was not yet entirely broken, there are stark binaries between the two groups which make for intriguing viewing: the obvious physical disparity lies in the difference between the big, butch miners and Mark and his effeminate friends. The LGSM are more into their synth-pop, whereas the miners enjoy their slower, traditional guitar music. The miners are far from 'Conservative', but possess a small, close-knit community consisting of nuclear families whose children are suddenly being exposed to a brash homosexual subculture. It is still a tetchy issue. Indeed, one friend of Mark's refuses to do a damn thing for the miners on account of having been bullied for being gay when he lived in a mining community up north. Ideologically, two of Mark's friends are, ultimately, entrepreneurs and therefore capitalists, where the miners are ardent socialists and vote Labour. But was it not, after all, Antonio Gramsci who once wrote that the bloody, muddy experiences of World War One acted as the unifier of the despised classes so that they now all share the same goal of toppling capitalism/discrimination/injustice etc.?Where the film struggles is in its lack of any real substantive plot. Its secondary strand, that of Joe's emerging homosexuality and his shame in having to keep it from his loving, though traditionalist, parents is underdeveloped where it might have really been the explosive core of the film. The second act lacks coherence, and essentially consists of either group traveling to visit one another. Certainly, by the time it has resorted to characters rolling around in fits of giggles clutching sex aides, it has somewhat lost us. Irrespective, the film does well to capture what it felt like to be in Britain at the time with these various political factions co-existing. It is never cordially established, but I would guess many of those around Mark, being as metropolitan and from London as they are, would have found allegiance with the old Liberal Party more-so Labour when it was run by the likes of Foot and Benn. They are, therefore, more out of step with the miners than they perhaps realise. Warchus encompasses those from each of the three sides of the British political triangle of the time impressively: the struggling socialist communities living under Thatcherism; the Liberals who, whilst more capitalist than they'd care to think, utterly reject right-wing social attitudes and the Tories, with their housing estates characterised by detached properties; bourgeois gatherings; 'homophobia' and green and pleasant front lawns. Mark Ashton was a real person, and according to the Internet, was a member of the British Communist Party back when the Cold War was still on and the Kremlin itself was responsible for funding much of its activism. Was he even aware of the USSR's position on queer people? The film does not say. What it does have to say, however, is that he was a brave individual who stood for what he believed in and copped a lot of flak for it. Whatever your position on anything in life, there is something to be drawn from that and his tale depicted here.

James I watched the Matthew Warchus-Stephen Beresford offering "Pride" just days after media heralded the first week in centuries in which the UK engaged in no large-scale power generation from coal. I use the word "heralded", since - while there were many references to that being "historic", it was hard to see much regret. Today, coal is viewed as a dirty source of CO2. The fact that we might someday need some for strategic purposes - just in case - seems wrongly skimmed over, but should we really mourn the passing of coal as main everyday fuel? This is a first key perspective against which "Pride" can be set, while the second concerns the relatively recent death of Lady Thatcher - a person who receives zero sympathy in this film, as well she might not given the authentic recreation of the circumstances of 1984. However, this is 2014 work that refuses to acknowledge what Maggie knew - that each taxpayer had by 1984 been subsidising the coal industry for decades to the tune of thousands. This is likewise a film ready to simplify Arthur Scargill down into a hero-leader of working miners, and to present police officers as little more than suppressors of rights ready to deploy physical and verbal abuse against strikers. Finally, it is a film largely unprepared to acknowledge that miners lived short, dirty, diseased and unpleasant lives that few would envy, and that many did their level best to escape from. The closest we get to this last recognition is a brief line uttered by Bill Nighy's character "Cliff", who makes it clear that members of his close family have been killed by their occupation.In short, and with the best will in the world, "Pride" is irrevocably pro-miner, decades after the events, showing how opinions on the miners' strike will remain divided - perhaps forever, with black v white, and little nuancing or attempt to present both sides of the argument.Interestingly, your reviewer is not quite like that...While this film cannot persuade me to renounce my admiration for "Maggie" overall, I do find sympathy for the miners' cause evoked in me by "Pride" (just as I find it evoked by "Brassed Off" - the similarly-themed Mark Herman film made in 1996, hence far closer to the portrayed events). I AM NOT made of stone, even if the makers of "Pride" seem to be.Of course, "Pride" goes beyond the strike per se to report the remarkable alliance struck up between young male and female homosexuals and Welsh miners at a time when anti-Thatcher sympathies were NOT enough to bridge gaps of prejudice, even when the L&G community did all they could to raise funds to help the miners and their families. The fact that these were often English city-dwellers from the "soft South" made the divide even more visible!This is obviously then an amazing story worth telling, and it is here told with warmth, insight and humanity, and indeed - in this dimension at least - with the necessary nuancing. AIDS was just getting going then, and potential sufferers and society were both scared, for the same and different reasons. This ensured that anti-gay sentiment gained reinforcement just at a time when sexual-minority rights would otherwise have been making further progress. Even the 21 age of consent for male homosexuals was still in place. It was a quite different world, and one that gains authentic presentation.The aforementioned Bill Nighy plays far from his usual part, and is perhaps the most compelling character - a quiet, poetic soul thrilled by mining history and culture, though not quite blind to its costs, a repressed homosexual himself and a gentle man resorting to the strongest possible language as he spews out his loathing of "Thatcher". His fellows in the mining community include the reasonable, bridge-building "Dai", whose portrayal by Paddy Considine is just right. And, needless to say, Dai's mix of crusading and pragmatism at first gets far more support from the true unsung heroes of every such industrial village - the wives and mothers. Here we get quite superb performances from Imelda Staunton as the gung-ho Hefina, as well as the quieter kindness personified of Gwen, played by an excellent Menna Trussler. On the L&G side there is an absolute plethora of great acting to savour, be it from Faye Marsay as the lovely (in every sense) "Steph" or Dominic West as older gay actor Jonathan Blake - in real life still alive in 2017, despite being among the first people in Britain to be diagnosed HIV+. Then of course there is our hero "Joe", played by George Mackay; Gethin (Andrew Scott) and real-life early AIDS victim Mark Ashton - also a communist (though the film chooses not to go there), who is just superbly played by Ben Schnetzer. On this side of the film, this is an ensemble chosen with care to offer a non-stereotypical presentation of the whole spectrum of types and personalities that the lesbian and gay community (just of course like ANY OTHER COMMUNITY) can muster.Ultimately, "Pride" remained an at-times uncomfortable watch for me, but solely because I believe the cynically manipulative and self-adoring Scargill had an agenda beyond UK pits, while Maggie had a duty (was repeatedly elected) to see the big economic (and even environmental) picture. That is also a story that will need telling someday. In the meantime, here is a film that I still appreciated greatly, portraying an incongruous and priceless situation from history enjoyably, thoughtfully and deftly, through truly classy performances.But concession-making is a two-way process. If I can swallow my "pride", sacrifice political beliefs to see the merit in (and even feel sympathy for) arguments presented by the other side, well perhaps so also can they, one day...

Katie I watched this film recently as part of a school film group, and I can't even describe the emotional response from just about everyone in the room. This film made me laugh, it made me cry, and I felt such a connection to all of the characters. Despite not having experienced 1984 or the miners strikes for myself, the film shows you the struggles the LGBT community faced (and continues to face) in regards to being accepted by the rest of the world, as well as the struggles the small towns in the UK faced throughout the mining strikes. It seems like an odd pairing, miners and LGBT people, but the film depicts the solidarity between the two groups perfectly, without sugar coating anything. This film has earned itself a place on my favourites list that's for sure!