Pride

image for Pride

Short takes

Not recommended under 15 due to themes, coarse language and sexual references

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Pride
  • a review of Pride completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 November 2014.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 15 Not recommended due to themes, coarse language and sexual references

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Pride
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Mature themes, coarse language, sexual reference and brief nudity
Length: 120 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Pride is a comedy based on the true story of a Welsh mining community struggling to make enough money to stay afloat during the miner’s strike of 1984-85. The miners are threatened by Prime Minister Thatcher and are on strike in response to her pit closures. While this is occurring, a young closet homosexual man named Joe (George MacKay) arrives in London for his first Gay Pride March, and is taken under the wings of a group of activists.

One of the activists, Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer), convinces the group that the gay and lesbian community should support the miners but they have problems convincing the miner’s union who resist their support. They decide on a more personal approach and make contact with, and head to, the village of Onllwyn where, after some initial suspicion, the reception is mostly positive.

The two groups join forces to raise money to support the miners and their families. When the partnership is tested by opposition from one family and a tabloid smear, Mark is able to turn the situation around with a highly successful concert that most of the villagers attend.

The miners eventually return to work but the following year’s Gay Pride March sees the miners support the LGBT community and walk with them in a show of solidarity.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Discrimination; sexuality; relationships and friendship; resilience and personal growth; HIV AIDS

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in the film, including:

  • Individuals throw things and spit at members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community.
  • Fireworks and large objects (e.g. bricks) are thrown through a window of a bookshop – no-one is seriously injured.
  • A man is physically assaulted and beaten as part of a homophobic attack. He is taken to hospital and is seen in bed with injuries to his face.
  • The film contains some footage of police attempting to physically control the crowds during the Miner’s Strike of 1984-1985 – they are seen to push, shove and restrain people.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Children in this age group are likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes of violence

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group are likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes of violence

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the violent scenes and by the post-credits scene where it is mentioned that Mark Ashton died of AIDS-related medical complications at a very young age. The scenes when Joe’s mother and father find out he is gay are very emotional and may be upsetting.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Young people in this age group may also be disturbed at the scenes where Joe’s parents find out he is gay and by the idea of an attractive lead character, based on a real person, dying at such a young age.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

The film contains many sexual references, including:

  • There are a number of conversations about being gay and lesbian and the age of consent for gay men
  • Some of the women laugh and play with a large sex toy and a porn magazine
  • A woman talks about sex feeling like a dull duty.

Nudity and sexual activity

The film includes some nudity and sexual activity, including:

  • Many couples of different sexualities are seen kissing throughout the course of the film and some couples are seen in bed
  • At dance clubs, men and transsexuals are seen wearing very little clothing, or sexually provocative and bondage clothing such as leather and latex
  • A group of women browse a male porn magazine together. One photograph contains an image of a naked man

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Alcoholic drinks are consumed in social contexts within pubs – however, no characters are seen to be intoxicated.
  • Several characters are seen smoking, both outdoors and indoors.
  • Several characters smoke marijuana

Coarse language

There is coarse language in this movie, including:

  • fuck; shit; faggot; dyke; pervert; twat
  • A character states that AIDS stands for ‘Anally Injected Death Sentence’

In a nutshell

Pride is a film that celebrates the strength of the human spirit when fighting for something that is passionately believed in. It highlights the historical discrimination that existed against minority groups such as LGBT individuals, but also the breaking down of this discrimination through community action and acceptance. It also gives a picture of the situation in British mining communities during the mine closures of the 1980s. The film’s themes, sexual references and coarse language make it more suitable for the over 15s but it raises valuable issues for discussion with older teenagers.

Pride demonstrates the importance of friendship, and shows that friends may be found in the most unlikely of places. It shows that there is strength in numbers, and that it can be vital to become involved with causes if you want them to succeed and have a social impact.

The film also speaks about the need to be open and honest about who you are as a person, and the fact that individuals should never have to apologise for their own personal attributes and preferences.

Issues that parents may wish to discuss with teenagers include:

  • The closure of mines and the effects on mining communities
  • Discrimination and bigotry against individuals who are different
  • The difficulties of young people “coming out” to their families
  • The early days of HIV AIDS