Pride and Genre

The genre of Pride can be seen as a hybrid of both comedy and drama, however it is difficult to establish if the film is serious with comedic elements or a comedy with a serious undertone.  

Many audiences would feel that the film is more of a comedy than a drama as every element has comedy thrown into it even serious scenes have a comedic line thrown in. One scene that may suggest the film is a comedy is Jonathan dancing for the miners, the main comedic element of this scene is the fact while Jonathan dances we see the reactions of the miners and other gays, Jonathans physicality is juxtaposed with the static stillness of the miners as they watch bewildered and shocked. The scene is joyful and exciting and even captivates some miners as one begins to slowly move along with the song and Jonathan's rhythm, in addition other miners look in amazement as it seems that Jonathan is getting a lot of female attention through dancing and they realise they will have the same as dance seems to effect the women. In addition to this the gay's and lesbian reactions make the audience laugh as they look at Jonathan with embarrassment as they cringe at his dancing as it looks like stereotypical dad dancing.  

Another reason why this film can be seen as comedy is due to certain characters being in the film purely for the comedy such as Gwen, Stella, Reggie and Ray. These are due to the very little character development and they are simply there for the comic relief of the film.  

One the other hand the film can be seen to have a very serious tone with some comedic elements added which make it seem more realistic as it real life people crack a joke during serious moments to make it a more light hearted moment. One scene that reflects this is where Mark delivers a speech and the miners begin to sing. This scene shows how the group unite and stand together ready to fight back, Marks speech is used as a plot device and represents a call to arms which works as an action code as it makes the community sing. The song begins with one solo voice joined by more and more reinforcing the theme of unity, the non –diegetic music emphasises the ideology that they are stronger than the sum of its parts. The symbolic code of "victory to the miners" and the fist in the air shows the sign of solidarity and the coming together of two communities into one. In addition to this we are constantly placed within the community as while Mark is delivering his speech we are immersed in a sea of heads and part of the group. This scene shows their lowest point and the struggle they are facing and shows a heightened sense of drama as we are part of the struggle and the emotions in the scene are real. The fact Maureen's sons burst in to cause conflict shows that even though the gays were helping homophobia was a huge issue they faced and it did not go away.  

However Pride also has many influences from social realism as it deals with social issues that were present during the time, such as homosexuality, drugs, work, runaways etc. However Pride is much more of a light hearted film as it combines the realism from British social realism films and the feel good vibes of Hollywood, this means that although the film is alternative it still appeals to the mainstream audience.  

Overall this film displays typical genre conventions of both comedy and drama but it is clear to see the film is more of a drama with funny elements than just a simple comedy as if the film was stripped of the funny parts it would still have a story line where as if the issues and themes were taken away them film would have nothing left. The humour used in the film adds to the realism but the film does not rely on funny it uses humour to attract an audience and make the story more enjoyable and relatable.