Written by Stephen Beresford
Directed by Matthew Warchus
Mark: "And we've got a name: LGSM. Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners."
Steph: "It's not very catchy."
Mark: "It's a support group, Steph, not a skiffle band."
Well, it's Pride Month and the best way I could start with LGBT movies reviews was this one of course. Confession, I'd been meaning to watching this one for ages and today I sat down to see it in full. I really shouldn't have waited this long.
Set during the miners strike, the attention of said strike saw gay activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) band together with fellow activists in order to set up LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) and there's a delightful mix of characters. Characters that include closeted uni student Joe "Bromley" Cooper (George Mackay), confident lesbian Stephanie Chambers (Faye Marsay), older gay couple Jonathan Blake (Dominic West) and Gethin Roberts (Andrew Scott) and Mark's best friend, Mike Jackson (Joseph Gilgun).
As a group, they're a compelling group to watch and their support for the miners didn't take long to attract all kinds of attention. First of all from Miners and Men's Union leader, David "Dai" Donovan (Paddy Considine) and then from the women's support group. This group included characters such as Hefina Headon (Imelda Staunton) and housewife Sian James (Jessica Gunning). These particilar characters were the most supportive of LGSM.
They were also the ones who rallied around the group when the chips were down and the chips down from the likes of fellow women support group member Maureen Barry (Lisa Palfrey) being so vehemently against the LGSM wanting to help the miners. She was even a bit too quick to accuse the group of using the miners for their own personal agenda.
While an aspect of her accusation had some truth in it, the alliance between the LGSM and the miners was a beautiful meeting of like-minded people who despite some differences, also had each others back. This got demonstrated perfectly involving a subplot where Gethin became a victim of a homophobic attack. I thought Sian and Jonathan's bond in particular was rather nice.
As the movie got into its final act, we saw the protests get bigger than originally intended while Joe also stood up to his homophobic family in a scene that certainly played for humour. Watching a mix of fictional and real life members of LGSM working together for a cause they could've ignored but didn't was rather heartwarming. Seeing different communities band together to do the right thing was inspiring.
- The real life people here were Mark Ashton, Jonathan Blake, Sian James and Hefina Headon. Lesbians Against Pit Closures also factored in the movie.
- Other noteworthy actors in this movie included Bill Nighy, Freddie Fox, Liz White, Rhodri Meilir and Russell Tovey in supporting roles.
- Standout music: Pet Shop Boys West End Girls, Culture Club's Karma Chameleon and Bronski Beat Why?
- Chronology: Takes place between 1984-1985 as well as referencing beyond those years for people like Jonathan Blake and Sian James.
If you're gonna start a movie for this particular month, then Pride would definitely be the best one yo go with. It told an important piece of history and it done it beautifully with plenty of heart to boot. An absolute joy of a movie to watch.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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