"Pride" is the latest piece of sentimental uplift set in the movie-spun world of real-life sports.
You know the drill. An idealistic coach takes a ragtag collection of recalcitrant youngsters, and through discipline, hard work, and a litany of inspirational speeches, turns them into a winning team overflowing with character and pride. When the youths have to battle racial prejudice on top of everything else - as in "Remember the Titans" and "Glory Road" - well, that's just additional icing on the feel-good cake.
It would be easy to be cynical about a movie like "Pride." It clearly knows all the right buttons to push as it manipulates the emotions and stacks the decks in ways that could call into question the integrity of its makers. Yet, for all its slavish devotion to the formula, "Pride" works as a movie, thanks, primarily, to the actors who approach their roles with an earnestness and sincerity that bring the concept to life on screen.
Terrence Howard portrays Jim Ellis, a former competitive swimmer, who in 1974 is sent to dismantle a failing rec center run by the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. Once there, he meets up with a group of inner city boys whom he teaches to swim, and who, as a team, make the transition from hopeless underdogs to state champions in the course of a single season. Of course, it goes without saying that Ellis has to contend with the initial cockiness and lack of discipline of his own swimmers, but he also has to battle the prejudice of the other all-white teams against whom they compete as well as a local street hoodlum bent on drawing the boys into a life of crime.
Luckily, Howard receives strong support from Bernie Mac, Tom Arnold and a handful of fine young actors who acquit themselves well in the role of the swimmers.
There are times when "Pride" lays it on a little thick, when it seems more interested in tugging at our heartstrings than in telling a completely believable story, but I suspect that most members of the audience will be as awash in goose bumps and tears by the end of the movie as the script itself is in clichés. But then, like it or not, that's the name of the game when it comes to inspirational sports stories these days.
You know the drill. An idealistic coach takes a ragtag collection of recalcitrant youngsters, and through discipline, hard work, and a litany of inspirational speeches, turns them into a winning team overflowing with character and pride. When the youths have to battle racial prejudice on top of everything else - as in "Remember the Titans" and "Glory Road" - well, that's just additional icing on the feel-good cake.
It would be easy to be cynical about a movie like "Pride." It clearly knows all the right buttons to push as it manipulates the emotions and stacks the decks in ways that could call into question the integrity of its makers. Yet, for all its slavish devotion to the formula, "Pride" works as a movie, thanks, primarily, to the actors who approach their roles with an earnestness and sincerity that bring the concept to life on screen.
Terrence Howard portrays Jim Ellis, a former competitive swimmer, who in 1974 is sent to dismantle a failing rec center run by the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. Once there, he meets up with a group of inner city boys whom he teaches to swim, and who, as a team, make the transition from hopeless underdogs to state champions in the course of a single season. Of course, it goes without saying that Ellis has to contend with the initial cockiness and lack of discipline of his own swimmers, but he also has to battle the prejudice of the other all-white teams against whom they compete as well as a local street hoodlum bent on drawing the boys into a life of crime.
Luckily, Howard receives strong support from Bernie Mac, Tom Arnold and a handful of fine young actors who acquit themselves well in the role of the swimmers.
There are times when "Pride" lays it on a little thick, when it seems more interested in tugging at our heartstrings than in telling a completely believable story, but I suspect that most members of the audience will be as awash in goose bumps and tears by the end of the movie as the script itself is in clichés. But then, like it or not, that's the name of the game when it comes to inspirational sports stories these days.