Movie – Pride

Despite the name, I didn’t even think of this as a gay film. What I picked up from the blurb was the support for the miners strike in the 1980s from what was thought of as an unlikely source.The LGSM (lesbians & gays support the miners) was formed from a gay book shop in London by a group of people who felt the miners were being trodden on (by Thatcher’s government) in the same way they had been. They set about raising enough money to be invited to the Welsh mining village that accepted their hard-won donation. The prejudices that you expect for the 1980s (and probably today in some places) followed and some ignorant people just wouldn’t accept their money, despite hard ship.The men’s ego is already bruised as they are relying on their women folk financially and now the gays are in town offering them charity.Others, especially the women embraced the fact that these young men and (one) woman were sincere, encouraging and good dancers to boot. Some fun times had, to balance out the tough times.It’s all uplifting. There are some downsides but it doesn’t go as gloomy as Muriel’s Wedding or East is East. (What I call 50/50 films – first half jolly and fun, second half more dark and miserable).The cast if fantastic; Bill Nighy with a Welsh accent, Imelda Staunton being outrageous in London with her gal pals and so it goes on.With such a huge cast, there are so many topics (AIDS, prejudice, the PRIDE march (before it became a PRIDE carnival) and relationships explored (lost mother/son, having a partner with AIDS) and having been ignorant of this part of the strike, it was a delight to learn more about the true life characters before the end credits rolled.It’s all backed up with a fantastic soundtrack, not because I particularly liked it all but because it took my back to my youth of 1983/4. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out the year as each track was rolled out.Other people have made comparisons to Billy Elliot and there is of course a touch of Made in Dagenham, my favourite film of that year. There are so many feel good British films based around the communities facing hardship, think The Full Monty (which I’ve never seen by the way). I still think of them as kitchen sink dramas of the type I grew up with. Love it.8/10Smile factor 9/10