Pride Script
Representation
Pride (2014) is an autobiographical comedy drama about the
1984-85 miner’s strike and how the group LGSM helped to raise money and
awareness for the miners. The film represents a few different social and
cultural groups such as: Women, Gays, Lesbians, Londoners, the Welsh, and the
Government and Police. The ideas that are being conveyed about said groups are
the following: women are portrayed as being inspirational, for example, Sian
James was just a typical housewife who went on to become the MP for the Swansea
constituency. Women are also represented as being firm and telling their
husbands and male friends to stop being so stuck in their ways and actually
communicate with the gay community. This representation accurately reflects
what was going on at the time as there were women’s action groups who would
help out the miner’s by raising money, collecting food and helping out in any
way they could. Gay people are represented in the film by being more enthused
by progress than the straight people. Their role in the film is also to
highlight the AIDs crisis at the time as well as Joe’s character highlighting
the legal age for straight people was 16 whereas for gay people it was 21. Gay
and Lesbian people are also represented as being much more fun than straight
people, this representation may be for the interest of the audience as it adds
much needed comic relief. The representation of the Welsh and the Londoners
differs as the welsh are conveyed as being much slower towards change and the
Londoners are represented by most of the gay characters as people who like to
party and are politically active. Finally, it can be argued that the Government
and Police are represented in the interests of a more left-wing audience. As
some of the characters mention their hate towards Conservative prime minister
of the time, Margaret Thatcher. The film also illustrates how the police
laughed in many of the picketer’s faces and were quite brutal when at marches.
However, it is unfair to say that the film is just trying to push its political
agenda as it does accurately represent the events and people at the time. For
instance, there were 5 deaths during the strike and 11,000 arrests. So
therefore, the story of ‘Pride’ needed to be told because it shows the police
brutality many people faced. It is also a true story that was so nearly
forgotten due to the Conservative party never properly addressing the strike
that led to many needed legislation involving the workplace and gay rights.
Audience
Pride’s gross revenue was £16.7million USD, which highlights
that the film was more designed to be watched at home with family friends
rather than go to the cinema to see it as it is not a blockbuster. On the other
hand, many people may have wanted to go to the cinema to see it as the film has
a top billed cast including: Bill Nighy, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, and
Andrew Scott. Even though the story of pride needed to be told so people like
Mark Ashton did not die in vain and to tell the other side of the story that
may not have been told by the news at the time, many criticised the film for
being left-wing propaganda. Therefore the film possibly only appealed to
left-wing audiences and to the LGBT+ community rather than to a wider range of
people. However, Pride won ten awards, including a BAFTA, and received 91% on
rotten tomatoes which reiterates how the story did need to be told as it
managed to get such a positive reception. Although, the film was still
criticised for not using any Welsh actors and for its lack of ethnic
minorities. However, overall the story of ‘Pride’ is a story that needed to be
told as it highlights the struggle that miners and gay people faced at the
time, whose story was brushed over for many years by biased news outlets.
