Pride - Representation of the miners strike

Pride is the story of a gay and lesbian community known as LGSM (lesbians and gays support the miners) use different ways of fundraising and drawing media attention to help provide for a mining community in Wales who are on strike. Although this is the plot of the film it focuses more on the individual lives of the gays and lesbians rather than the miners on strike, in the film there is little character development if the miners however the character of Joe has huge development and his own character arc and narrative to himself in a sense. When scene do focus on the miners there is little in depth knowledge of their lives and issues are simply talked over and then brushed aside whereas topics involving the gay characters are delved into such as Sian and Jonathan discussing the fact he is HIV positive, we learn a lot about his character in this scene however the most knowledge we gain about Sian is that she will go back to being a house wife and a mother now that the strike is over and the fight is done.  

Throughout the film we hardly ever see the miners without the LGSM group by their side, even when they are going back to work Joe and Mark are there watching them march for the final time. However even though the miners stories are not individually addressed the community as a whole is addressed, as the start of the film we see Mark watching the news and the miners lash out and rebel against the police in what seems to be a people Vs the police/state. As Mark watches he sees the chaos and brutality of the fight and see that the miners are really struggling to win this fight, this gives insight to the audience of the issues prevalent at the time and introduces them to the themes of the film from the miners side. This footage is so important as it shows the miners are extremely determines, confident and head strong, it also makes the audience question if they will win the strike due to their determination (enigma codes) as well as builds an initial picture of the miners. Later on in the film we see this replicated by the miners in the film as we see Dai, Martin, Carl and Maureen's sons all fighting at the front. This allows the audience to link the two together and see that this is a reoccurring thing for the miners at this time.  

Another scene that represents the strike is when LGSM return to Wales once again and it is clear that the strike is going down hill, the lighting is dull and drab and during the bingo they are attempting to win tins of food. This scene shows the struggle they were having and they needed more help. However after Marks speech all of the miners begin to sing Bread and Roses, this shows that although they ate experiencing tough times they are still a community and unity is still a huge thing to them, they are still one and no matter what they will work together to achieve something.  

To conclude the film represents the miners strike is trying and hard however all of the miners still have sprit and will not give up without a fight showing just how head strong and dedicated they really were.