YMMV / Pride (2014)

• Genius Bonus: People who know a lot about the history of the gay liberation movement and the labour movement in the UK will usually get a lot out of the movie.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The film depicts the struggles of the miners ending in failure — much as it did in real life — with the Conservative government triumphing, closing down many coal mines, and leaving the miners financially destitute. The year after the film's release, the UK's last deep coal mine closed.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Maureen firmly establishes just how vile and selfish she really is when she not only reports the LGSM's campaign to the tabloids — both opening them up to mass homophobic abuse and cementing her as an Informer — but sabotages the meeting by moving it forward to 12pm (as opposed to the originally-agreed 3pm) and stacking the vote with homophobes from out of the village, causing the Miners and their families to lose the thousands of pounds' worth of money they would have received from the LGSM campaign.
  • Likewise, the nameless homophobe who confronts Gethin in the street while he's collecting alone. When we first see him, he feigns "just [wanting] to talk to" Gethin before chasing him down and giving him a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves him hospitalized. It's a horrible reminder of how bad things used to be — and in many places, still are — for the LGBTQ+ community in public places, especially on their own.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The "Bread and Roses" scene; Mark's promise to do a fundraiser for one last chance to help the miners, the woman breaking into song, and every one of the Welsh singing. Bonus points for Dai and his wife's tears and Clive mouthing the words.
  • Hefina drawing Gethin out about his Welsh roots, wishing him a Happy Christmas from home.
  • Gethin causes one with only two words: "Hello, mum".
  • The arrival of the Miners Unions at London Pride, joining the march and lending political power to the London Gay community; even though they lost their struggle against Thatcher and the Tories.
  • During the Where Are They Now montage at the end, watching Mark Ashton at his zenith, incandescently happy and loved by his community, we learn that he died a mere three years later, days after being diagnosed with AIDS. He was only 26 years old.
  • A happy tear-jerker that only gets better the longer it remains true: Jonathan, the second man ever diagnosed with HIV in the UK, is alive and well at the time of the film's creation (2014), and still is as of 2023.
• Strawman Has a Point: The narrative ignores Stella's concerns about how LGSM is run, but her concerns about the lack of a democratic process are warranted given that Mark basically steamrolls everyone into doing what he wants.

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