Pride (2007)

As a swimmer, I have to say this was an entertaining movie. First, the story of PDR is one that is well-known to swimmers in PA, and it's a story that should be shared with a larger audience. Second, as someone else mentioned, the swimming scenes were very realistic- the good swimmers actually swam well- which is probably a first in cinematic history! Finally, it is a movie of a group overcoming tremendous odds- and, I can tell you that PDR is truly a powerhouse of a team today. Thus, it's a movie that leaves you with a sense of optimism about humanity. So, although I know very little about scripts, cinematography, etc., I do know a lot about swimming and can say from that perspective that this is worth a watch!

It's important to keep in mind the real meaning of the phrase "Inspired by a true story" when watching Pride. It's sort of like "You could save up to 50%," which can quite literally be translated to "You can't save more than 50%." It all sounds great until you realize that the lower part of "up to" is "zero." Similarly, "inspired by a true story" means that someone heard a story and it made them think of this one. The only certainty is that the real story and the one you're about to see are not the same thing.There is a real Jim Ellis that began coaching the swim team at the Philadelphia Department of Recreation in the early 1970s, but I have a feeling that the real Jim Ellis must not have been able to conceal some feelings of disappointment at the way the movie turned out. Clearly, it takes wild liberties with the story of his life, and I just picture him responding to the strange looks of his friends who wonder why the movie is so much different than the man they know.At any rate, one thing that he will surely be proud of is that he is portrayed by Terrence Howard, one of our finest actors, who starred alongside Bernie Mac who, despite the lack of an original and powerful story, still gives a heartfelt and moving performance. The movie takes place in 1970s Philadelphia, a time and place where racism was the norm, not the exception, and the educated and professional Jim Ellis, who is also an accomplished swimmer, is having trouble finding a worthwhile teaching position, until finally relegated to a falling apart recreation center, which he is assigned the task of cleaning up before its demolition. We can certainly understand his feeling of belittlement. When we first meet Elston, the maintenance man (Bernie Mac), he is a disillusioned grump who sits in his office surrounded by piles of junk that touch the ceiling and watching daytime TV on an old, dusty television set. Needless to say, when Jim shows up to start cleaning the place up and clearing it out, Elston is not exactly friendly with him. He knew his rec center was being closed, and all his anger about that transferred quite smoothly onto Jim. Given his past as a college swimmer, Jim takes a special interest in the pool, which he cleans and fills and brings to top shape. A group of black teenagers who play basketball just outside the rec center take interest in the pool when their basketball rim is taken away and the heat remains stifling, and soon the group have a developing swim team on their hands, which they enter into a citywide swim meet. To call them underdogs, of course, would be something of an understatement. They're unorganized, unprofessional, insufficiently trained, and have no idea how to behave at a swim meet. That doesn't matter, of course. The movie is your standard underdog sports story, so the first athletic outing is totally unimportant as anything other than a learning experience, a catalyst to drive their much harder and much more focused training that will lead up to the final athletic outing, the one that matters. By now, the only thing a sports movie has going for it is that the protagonist(s) do not have to win at the film's climax, we only have to understand the meaning and significance of their effort. Sadly, the movie has all of the character development of an old Seagal movie. The good guys are the good guys because they're just supposed to be, and the bad guys are the nasty white swimmers who laugh and jeer and make racist jokes at our team. Oh, and there's one scene where one of the white guys kicks one of the black guys underwater while in the middle of a race. I didn't know it was really possible to kick someone underwater like that, but you get the idea of how deep the character development is.We understand that this is the group of kids that Jim Ellis turned from kids hanging out on the streets doing nothing with their lives and into an organized and competitive team of swimmers, but other than that we don't really get to know anything about who they are.But the biggest problem is that the only real statements that the movie makes are that effort and organization lead to success and racism is bad. Both of these are so obvious that when a movie is made with them alone it ends up feeling empty and unnecessary. Racism was so much more powerful in America in the 1970s that it feels like an enormous loss that the movie dealt directly with that issue but didn't really say anything about it. It's sort of a feel- good movie, but when it's over and you realize how much it should have said is much bigger than what it said, the feel-good sensation turns into a sad disappointment.

This movie evoked a bundle of emotions, from tears to smiles, and cheers. I know many people get tired of seeing movies like this one, I am glad they still make them, for our children and grandchildren to know what it really was like in that day and time. If you have not been personally affected by hate of ANY kind then you may not fully understand and will get sick of seeing the same old movies being made.... All I can say is kudos to the film makers, they captured the spirit of those times perfectly. From the white coach who saw no color to the people who hated blacks simply because of color, to the young men being affected by the hate both white and black..... Two thumbs up from me...

Pride is MUCH better than the 2.6 rating - yes, it does wear its heart firmly on its sleeve, but a turkey it most definitely is not. We loved Akeelah and the Bee last year and would put this in the same sense of journey: the ad campaign and tag line should be:"The waves they created changed their world forever..."It does what sport movies should do - gives you the training, the sport, the lift. Of course you know the step by step play but that doesn't alter the fact that this is watchable.I'm afraid I don't get the objections on ground of race - I would imagine being poor, black, and impoverished and the first in my sport in 1974 would be realistically unbelievably tough.If you like your films to be about values - then is is definitely worth the view.IMDb voters should be ashamed - this is not the worst film of all time by a long shot - or all our hearts dead?Ignore the vote - and view with an open heart - we found it decent, inspiring, and all together a satisfying view.