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
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