Representation of Youth - Pride

The opening scene of any film is arguably one of the most important scenes, because it serves a huge role in establishing the theme and tone of the film. Pride was very clever in its opening scene, because it was quick to establish its protagonist, Mark, and to show the audience his personality, a man who is intelligent, hard working and willing to help others who need help more than him. Mark attentively watched the news in which the miners are striking, and is oblivious to the fact that his “presumed” lover from the previous night is even speaking to him. This gives the connotation that Mark is a quick thinker, and once he gets the idea in his head, he has to carry out this idea. It also gives the connotation that Mark is representing Gay Youth, seemingly having a different lover every night, and while this was frowned upon by the vast majority of Britain, it shows that he is rebellious, but not afraid to go against he rules/dominant ideology. Mark has been stereotyped by the encoders, because usually it’s the Youth who have no care for marriage or relationships, they are only interested in sex and love. He clearly has an affiliation for society, because he is eager to help the people in society, because when watching the news, the majority wouldn’t think to help the miners, instead, Mark quickly picks up a bucket, and tries to raise money for them. This gives the representation that youthful people are much more nicer to those who need help than the olde generation, and despite being knocked back by hundreds of mining communities for their homosexuality, they are still eager to help the mining community, despite being neglected by them and smeared by them. Mark is also quite an independent character, he doesn’t need anyone else to stand up for him and is willing to tackle the matter himself. He is always the one who stands up and fights for the miners, he is the one who does the speeches, he is the one who is constantly seen on his own. Other characters, like Joe, rarely feature in a scene on their own, they are always joined up by someone else, whereas Mark is able to do things solo. He doesn’t want people to get close to him, and his quite content with leaving and returning, like we see at the end of the film, where he develops HIV from his previous lover, he disappears for a long time, only to return weeks, or possibly months after. What’s important in this part of the film is what Mi\ark says to Mike, he tells him that “Can’t you do your own thing for once!”, and this leads onto the other representations for the Youth, because Miem is the polar opposite to Mark, he is young but wants no responsibilities, he doesn’t like when people rely on him, and gets annoyed when he actively is doing something, like when she’s holding the picket at the start, he is frustrated at how long he’s holding the picket up for. Mike is obviously a character who is scared to have responsibility, and is happy to have a lifestyle that doesn’t have a lover every single day, he represents a youth culture that is interested in love, but doesn’t actively seek it every single day. When Mark returns to Mike and the others, Mike is unwilling to tell him that he was missed, rather simply saying “Just get back inside and turn the mic off”, obviously representing that the Youth are scared to admit when someone is missed. Mark learns while he as away that being independent from society isn’t not beneficial to himself, because everyone else in the mining community has someone there with them. They have families, Gethin has his mum, Bromley has his family, who he later abandons, but Mark has no one, so it’s presumed that he’s left his family (because he was so eager for Joe to do the same), giving a sad reality that the Youth in the 1980’s had to live independently due to a difference in sexuality. Marks storlyine is archetypical and stereotypical of the Protestor that was active In the 1980’s. His character doesn’t develop that much in the film, he enters the film already developed, and there isn’t anything that shapes him that we can see in the film, like mentioned early, the lack of “secondary-storyline” for Mark is important. Other characters have a backstory, Jonathan develops HIV, Gethin sees his mother, Bromley leaves his family etc, Mark has nothing for the entirety of the film, up until the ending, but even his death comes as a shock as it wasn’t developed in the film. But the film is quite problematic for its representation of Youth, all the Youth characters in the film are seemingly so interested in society, yet all eager to break the law. Bromley breaks the law when he is kissing another boy, as he’s under age, and Bromley’s character is easily persuaded to do certain things, he is pressurised into making certain decisions by Mike and Mark, giving the impression he is a ‘push-over’ and easily influenced. There stereotypes of the Youth are unfair, because not every young person in the UK is interested in daily sex, societal issues and breaking the law. Finally, there is a representation of Youth culture in the fashion and appearance. The clothes that the Youth were are all typical clothing that they would wear, specifically Steph. Her entire appearance is stereotyped to look exactly like the media’s perception of a lesbian is, having colourful clothing and hair, rings in her face, and having a punk, leather jacket. Mark also Sports this leather jacket, and wears clothing that older generation wouldn’t wear.