"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Pride (2014, R)

I didn’t know how much I needed Pride until I saw it.  A based-on-a-true-story film with LGBTQ themes and a happy ending?    Such things are possible?  So many queer stories are about discrimination, violence, or HIV, and all three of those things do play a role in this movie; however, its focus, the idea at its heart, is such an uplifting one.  It’s the story of one marginalized community coming to the aid of another, two disparate groups uniting in a common cause and learning to celebrate each other.

In the ‘80s, coal miners across the U.K. took part in a massive strike lasting nearly a year (Billy Elliot centers around the same events.)  Pride’s protagonist isn’t a miner but a young gay Londoner named Mark Ashton.  A gay rights activists, Mark recognizes his own community’s experience in the miners’ struggles.  Both groups find themselves the enemies of Margaret Thatcher, overly-zealous police forces, and the heavily-biased press.  He galvanizes a group of other LGBT activists to form the LGSM, Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.  They set about collecting as much money as they can to keep the miners going throughout the strike.

That’s the first side of our story, and it’s a good one, but the real beauty of the film comes when you add the second element.  Having raised a quite a bit of money, the LGSM has trouble finding anyone to accept their donations; as soon as they say, “Lesbians and Gays,” the union stops responding to their calls.  Our heroes aren’t easily put off, however, and they decide to bypass the union altogether and send the money directly to a small mining community in Wales.  What begins as an uneasy encounter between two entirely different worlds – the villagers, most of whom have never met a gay person before, are wary of the LGSM members, and the LGSM workers aren’t sure they’ll be safe in a conservative small town – slowly morphs into a beautiful connection of shared ideals and acceptance.  The two worlds start to merge, and each side learns a great deal about the other, coming together as dedicated, honest allies of one another’s causes.

Yes, it has dark moments – the strike takes its toll, and any LGBTQ story from the ‘80s includes the specter of HIV – but the film never wallows in these trials and tragedies.  Its passionate, determined characters push back against any attempt to diminish them.  When someone throws a flash-bomb through their window, they just roll up their sleeves, grab the fire extinguisher, and keep fighting.  And the bond fostered between the LGSM and the miners always remains the focal point, giving the film what cinemaphiles would call “warm fuzzies up the ying-yang.”

The film doesn’t do much to dispel the idea that all British actors know each other.  The LGSM includes Andrew Scott (Sherlock’s Moriarty,) Dominic West (Hector from The Hour,) and Freddie Fox (the titular nephew from The Mystery of Edwin Drood a couple years ago,) and on the mining side, there’s Imelda Staunton, a fantastic Bill Nighy, and Paddy Considine (who I’ll always know best as the dad from In America.)  Plus, former History Boy Russell Tovey makes a small appearance just for the heck of it.

Warnings

A little language (including homophobic slurs,) brief violence, some sexual references, and drinking/smoking.

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