''Pride'' is a 2007 American

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...

released by

Lionsgate Entertainment Starz Entertainment Corp, formerly known officially as Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation and commonly as Lions Gate and/or Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Founded by ...

on March 23, 2007. Loosely based upon the true story of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

swim coach James "Jim" Ellis, ''Pride'' stars

Terrence Howard Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor performing on film and television. He has received a Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden ...

Bernie Mac Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957 – August 9, 2008), better known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American stand up comedian, actor and film producer. He joined fellow comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. H ...

, and

Kimberly Elise Kimberly Elise Trammel (born April 17, 1967) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in '' Set It Off'' (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in '' Beloved'' (1998). During her career, Elise has appeared ...

. The film was directed by Sunu Gonera. The film centers on Jim Ellis (

) and grouchy but caring janitor Elston (

). The two have a short-lived rivalry before becoming good friends.

Plot

In 1974, college-educated Jim Ellis is having a hard time finding employment. While struggling to find something better, Jim, a former competitive swimmer, works at the decrepit

Marcus Foster Marcus Albert Foster (March 31, 1923 – November 6, 1973) was an American educator who gained a national reputation for educational excellence while serving as principal of Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1966–1969), ...

Recreation Center in a poor neighborhood of Philadelphia. His job is to prepare the foreclosure of the Center, causing friction with Elston, the janitor whose job may disappear. The Center includes a dilapidated swimming pool, which Ellis rehabilitates. One day, Jim invites a group of black teens in for a swim. Andre, Hakim, Reggie, Puddin’ Head, and Walt prove to be fairly capable swimmers and with a few pointers, could become great swimmers. In parallel, Jim develops a romantic interest in Sue, Hakim's sister and guardian who wants Hakim to attend school before pool. With some help from Elston, Jim decides to try to save the swimming pool by starting the city's first all African-American swim team, the "PDR team" for both "Pride, Determination, Resilience" and "Philadelphia Department of Recreation." Once they are joined by Willie, a female swimmer more talented than any of the boys, the prospects of competing against much more experienced white teams begin to improve. However, Black swimmers are not welcome everywhere and the team has to fight overtly racist opposition and treachery, which is what Jim already experienced when he was competing 10 years ago. Throughout their struggles in and out of the swimming pool, Jim and Elston encourage and mentor the kids, helping them not only to become successful at swimming but also in their struggles against prejudice, crime, and poverty.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

''Pride'' was met with mixed reviews from critics, with a 47% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 111 reviews, with an average score of 5.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Pride'' features a typically stellar performance from Terrence Howard, but ultimately falls victim to its over usage of sports movie clichés." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 55 based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' critic

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and filmmaker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for ''New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as w ...

noted that the film "illustrates the adaptability and limitations of the sports movie," but concluded that when the film's "sinewy young idealists glide through water to the tune of '

I'll Take You There "I'll Take You There" is a song written by Al Bell (using his real name Alvertis Isbell), and originally performed by soul music, soul/gospel music, gospel family band the Staple Singers. The Staple Singers version, produced by Bell, was releas ...

,' the heart still leaps." In his

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

shows, comedian

Bill Burr {{Infobox comedian , image = Bill Burr by Gage Skidmore.jpg , alt = , caption = Burr in 2018 , birth_name = William Frederic Burr , birth_date = {{birth date and age, 1968, 6, 10 , bi ...

has spoofed the film, calling it as an example of the overabundance of films about white-on-black

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

with continuously lower stakes.

Accolades

Notes

External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, 2=Pride 2007 films 2000s buddy drama films 2000s coming-of-age drama films 2000s teen drama films 2000s sports drama films African-American films American buddy drama films American coming-of-age drama films American sports drama films American teen drama films Films scored by Aaron Zigman Films set in the 1970s Films set in 1974 Films set in Philadelphia Films shot in New Orleans Lionsgate films Drama films based on actual events Sports films based on actual events Swimming films African-American biographical dramas Biographical films about sportspeople Biographical films about educators Films about racism in the United States Cultural depictions of swimmers 2007 directorial debut films 2007 drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language biographical drama films English-language buddy drama films English-language sports drama films