DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Pride

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 26, 2007, 17:36 GMT

This inspirational story of a swimmer beaten down by racism who takes a group of neighborhood kids and teaches them all about pride and swimming, but can they find a white team that will swim against them?

What the back of the box says:
“Based on true events, Pride is the inspiring story of Jim Ellis, a charismatic schoolteacher who changed lives forever when he founded an African-American swim team in one of Philadelphia's roughest neighborhoods.”Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) is the only black man on the swim team in 1964 and finds that other teams will not compete with him. His coach urges him to ignore this, but the meet we see at the beginning of the film is the last straw and he strikes a bigoted police officer. We cut ahead to 1974 and Ellis has come to Philadelphia to try and get a coaching position on the Main Line swim team, but the coach of the team (Tom Arnold) dismisses Ellis because of his color.

Going to the employment office Ellis is given the task of dismantling the Marcus Foster Recreation Center, much to the chagrin of Elston (Bernie Mac), the lone, grouch of a maintenance man. Ellis smells the sweet scene of chlorine and realizes that the crumbling, graffiti defaced building houses a unused swimming pool. Soon Ellis is filling it up and (no, no don’t say it) getting back into the swim of his glory days. The city comes and removes the basketball rims so the neighborhood teens can’t play hoops anymore. One hot day, Ellis lets them into the pool and one of the boys challenges him to a race in the pool. His defeat leads the others to want to learn the proper way to swim. Ellis agrees to do so, but they must play by his rules. However, the boys continue to clown both in and out of the pool until events whip them into shape. Terrence Howard plays Jim Ellis with the conviction found in these types of sports films and I thought that he did it rather well here. Bernie Mac plays the curmudgeon role and is given the funniest of lines. However, both seem to suffer from what I’d call bad ‘70s afros that didn’t look real to me, but that was just a bit of a nitpick. I used the terminology “these type of sports films” and if you’ve seen another of the type then the events unfold in the usual manner (whips young kids into athletes) and it has the feeling of familiarity. However, for all those familiar traits I found myself drawn into the picture and rooting for the boys to succeed against the prejudice that they find all about them. I found it all heartwarming and inspirational, but if you’ve seen many of these types of film before then you might see it all coming. Look for footage of the real Jim Ellis, who still coaches in the rec center, during the closing credits. Pride is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Sunu Gonera. There’s a 4 minute deleted scene of Elston checking on the team in their hotel rooms that’s both touching and cute. The extended swim meet scenes total 25 minutes and covers 4 scenes. There are also 4 minutes of musical montages, but I’m not sure if they’re alternates to ones that were featured in the film. There are also previews for other Lionsgate DVDs.

Pride tells a true story, but the film seems to cover ground that’s been ploughed by other films. However, I found myself drawn into the familiar storyline and enjoyed the outcome (even if it was predictable). Pride is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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