“Things do not change; we change.

— Henry David Thoreau

“Pride,” Matthew Warchus’ new film, is what they call a “crowd pleaser.” This is the kind of film like, although not as good as, “Norma Rae” and “Rocky” or any number of the “Lassie” films. Well, it’s come to your local art house, just in time. If ever American crowds needed a “pleaser,” it’s now.

“Pride” is based as they say, on a true story. They always say that because in order to sell a true story, it’s often in need of some hype and enlargement of principle players, in case the originals were boring.

The story itself, read aloud in the papers, is an interesting social piece, but black and white letters don’t take you inside. You need strong compelling actors to flesh it out.

Inside “Pride” we get to meet some real human beings, or at least a pride of good actors to make them human. The story is set in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain of 1984, when labor was a constant state of unrest and gay culture was on the rise with the ugly blight of AIDS by its side.

Advertisement

In the small Welsh mining town of Onllywn in the Dulais Valley of Wales, a crippling strike is on going due to Thatcher’s shut down of coal pits. Meanwhile in London, gays and lesbians are also on the tip of the harridan Thatcher’s pitchfork. So a progressive gay group leader Mark Ashton (a very good Ben Schnetzer) comes up with the idea of attaching the plight of gays to the miner’s strike, giving the term “Union” a brand new social twist.

The LGSM group starts collecting money in painted buckets. When that doesn’t kick up enough dust, this band of colorful outliers are off to Wales and the village of Onllwyn, a remote hamlet full of hard working straight miners and wives, who, like those in the village in the musical “Brigadoon,” have been asleep for decades with their lives tuned into the one television station, and whose general color tone is basic beige. The locals have never seen a gay or lesbian in their lives, as we might expect, director Warchus unlocks some house secrets that reveal one or two “straights” that have been waiting for a chance to break out.

The gay crew are, of course, met with suspicion and fear what with all the hyped AIDS news they’ve been bombarded within the conservative press. One late-middle-aged couple warms to them and welcomes their input into solving the miner’s strike. British stars Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton are perfect choices. They and other more liberal neighbors organize rallies and throw a dining hall dance right out of Judy and Andy’s old MGM teenage musicals.

At first the affair is met with stoic silence, angry comments chill the air, and the silence falls that threatens to kill the meeting. But then, in true heart string yanking fashion, a single girl starts singing the first lines of the stirring union ballad “Bread and Roses,” made famous by Joan Baez and Judy Collins. One by one, and soon two by two, others join until it’s a roar of hope and defiance. I must confess it even got to me, but then I still cry when Lassie finds Roddy.

Dominic West (“The Affair”) as one of the partners in a more sober, cynical older gay relationship, livens the action with an impromptu dance number full of Mick Jagger moves, set to Shirley and Company’s “Shame, Shame, Shame.” After that, the walls drop, the gays and lesbians are booked into various houses and the fight for liberty begins.

Director Warchus, a relative newcomer, puts together a sugar sweet Valentine with his slightly corny juxtaposition of gays and mine workers. It’s a bit retro, but who in the movie business would turn their noses up to a guaranteed “Crowd Pleaser?”

J.P. Devine is a stage and screen actor.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.