The Miner’s Strike of 1984. Members of
London’s gay community realise that they have much in common with the miners:
they’re both vilified by Thatcher’s government, the police and the front pages
of the tabloids. The miner’s unions refuse to accept the money that the LGSM
(Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) have collected, so instead they travel
to the mining village of Onllwyn to help the families first-hand. Reluctant to
accept money from the colourfully dressed gays, the people of Onllwyn are
eventually won over by LGSM’s members. At a time when Britain had never been so
turbulent or divisive, two poles apart communities end up forming firm
friendships and fighting each other’s battles.
Films “based on a true story” have been drowning in money
over the last few years. They’re a safe bet, audiences happily paying to see
real-life David and Goliath exploits. Pride
is another film based on real events, but what makes it an arguably modern-day
classic is how assured it is, the mix of comedy, drama and heart-breaking
moments all perfectly handled.
There are some big names amongst the cast of Pride, actors immediately recognised
both here and over in the US; Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Paddy Considine,
all putting on spookily convincing Welsh accents. Nighy is a one-note actor,
the quirky English gent, but he has always played that note amazingly well.
Here, Nighy gets a bit more to do as quiet, weary committee member Cliff, who
is feeling the struggle of the long fight against Thatcher. It’s not until he
befriends the gays that Cliff gets his gusto back, fighting not just for his
village, but his new-found comrades. Staunton is given the routine role of
feisty Welsh pensioner, but she gets more than her fair share of culture clash
one-liners. Considine, famous for playing morose, psychologically complex
characters (Dead Man’s Shoes, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher) plays Dai, a friendly, gentle soul
and one of the key players on Onllwyn’s committee. Dai is an uncomplicated man
when it comes to right and wrong, Considine relishing the stirring speeches he
is given, dialogue that is down-to-earth and genuine; you don’t feel like
you’re being cynically forced to cheer for the underdogs.
The younger cast is equally as good as the established
British actors, even if not all of them get the screen time they deserve. Ben
Schnetzer, as Pride’s main character,
gay activist Mark, firmly holds your attention. There’s a touch of arrogance to
him, but he’s unwavering about fighting the good fight, refusing to give up.
Mark’s passion and enthusiasm keeps up the pace virtually throughout Pride; it can’t fail to rub off on
everyone who watches it. George MacKay is the hard-not-to-feel-for Joe, a
twenty-year-old struggling with the realisation he is gay. Joining the LGSM
(Joe’s parents think he’s on a college cookery course), they help him to be
proud of who he is rather than keep his sexuality hidden (any remotely suspect
reading material is hidden in Joe’s room), and his transformation is gradual
and convincingly fleshed out. Stars of British television Dominic West (The Hour, Appropriate Adult) and Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Blackout) play
a couple who run the book shop that acts as LGSM’s headquarters. West and Scott
are polar opposites, yet that’s what makes the strong bond they have so
believable. West is flamboyant, speaking his mind, and has no issues in letting
everyone know he’s gay. Scott plays Gethin, a Welshman from North Wales who
left for London after his family turned their backs on him when he came out.
Gethin is introverted, he doesn’t dress like the rest of LGSM, and he has a
temper that gets him into trouble. West and Scott couldn’t be more different,
yet it’s the glances and smiles they give each other, holding hands, chatting
in bed, the things that all couples do, that make them charming to watch.
Sadly, some of the young characters are thinly written.
The only reason Freddie Fox’s Jeff is in the film is so the Welsh children can
braid his hair. Also, the lesbians – with the exception of Faye Marsay’s Steph
– feel like they’re light relief rather than fully developed characters;
they’re the butt of several jokes when they decide to form their own separatist
group to help the miners.
These are tiny faults in an otherwise superb script from
Stephen Beresford. There are one-liners a-plenty here and not just the obvious
working class miners meet the gays jokes you would expect (“The only problem
we’ve got that they haven’t is Mary Whitehouse”, Mark argues, “and that’s only
a matter of time.”). The trailer for Pride
was misleading in that it made the film look like it was portraying the
Miner’s Strike as a jolly old knees-up. Instead, Beresford refuses to shy away
from just how much the strikes and pit closures crippled mining communities
like Onllwyn: two or three families living under one roof because they couldn’t
afford to pay bills; police seeing the miners as “little people”; the miners
being literally starved back into work. Beresford also writes several scenes
that highlight the spread of AIDS and the misconceptions surrounding the virus
in the early eighties. In one of Pride’s most heart-breaking scenes one of the
characters meets up with an ex at a nightclub. Instead of a heavy-handed
monologue accompanied by an emotional score, the ex tearfully says, “I’m doing
the farewell tour.” You instantly know what this means and you cannot fail to
start welling up. Beresford has written dozens of scripts for theatre, which
explains why the melting pot of comedy, drama and punch-to-the-gut tragedy all
neatly links in, scene after scene, and why most of the characters, despite
such a large cast, feel like individuals, instead of being by-the-numbers.
You could pick apart Pride
if you wanted to. While the hardships of the miners is far from toned down, I
thought more could have been shown, such as the police’s behaviour towards the
miners (which Arthur Skargill once likened to a “Latin American state”), and
the number of ghost towns and villages that were dotted around Wales after the
pit closures. It’s a tough balance as Pride’s
agenda is to give audiences an uplifting and feel-good film. If the script was
crammed full of political idealism and activism, only a small number of cinema-goers
could stomach it. Pride finds a
just-about happy medium.
Very few films can manage the feat of discussing heavy
subjects such as politics, activism, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, bigotry, trade
unionists, and so, so much more and have you cry cheerful, emotional tears by
the time the credits come up. This is
one of the many reasons why Pride is
the equal of British heavyweights such as Brassed
Off, The Full Monty and Billy Elliott.
4 out of 5
Matt
