| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
C+ |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Howard Alone Brings The Pride
by Eric (movies profile)
Sep 7, 2007
8
of
13 people found this review helpful
I can see Terrence Howard reading this script, perhaps in an airplane. I can see him imagining this movie in his mind, this real-life man that created a difference in his neighborhood. I can see him getting excited about this movie, although he knows that this follows a tried and true formula of sports movies. But why in that image did he see Tom Arnold?
Pride is your standard sports movie made watchable primarily because of Howard's pure presence on-screen, backed up by some rather interesting, if not original ideas. It tells the story of Jim Ellis, a college-educated black man who moves to Philadelphia for a fresh start. We know he was a swimmer in college and that after a racially-provoked event, Ellis makes the mistake of hitting an officer. But like the rest of the movie, it doesn't want to bother us with the details. He takes a job to clean out a run-down recreational center that acts more like a storage space. There are boys who play ball on the hoop outside, but that's as much activity that's going on.
When Jim discovers the pool inside, he decides to clean it up, just in time for the hoop to go down. He offers to let the boys play in the pool. After a childish bet is placed on him by one of the boys, he gains their admiration when he proves to be a natural fish in the water, and he does it in "panties". They want to swim like him and so he goes about teaching them. Then they deem themselves to be pros and wish to take on other schools. Their first meet against the white school (led by Tom Arnold) is just embarrassing. The best scene in the movie occurs when Ellis makes his boys (and girl) realize just how badly they they behaved. Again, this is all standard sports stuff.
And yes, it does end with the Big Race and there's a little trouble when the local hustler and dealer decides to teach Ellis a lesson for actually trying to teach these kids about respect and integrity (not to mention keeping them from pushing his drugs). So why do I like this movie? Because this movie is as much NOT interested in the Big Race as it IS. It touches on their wins and their rise in the ranks of Philly swim clubs, but it's more interested in the ideas that Ellis brings his young men and woman to believe in; Pride, Determination, Resilliance. It doesn't dismiss racism, but shows that the real problem in this specific community comes from drugs and violence. These are ideas that the movie doesn't point out directly, but are like the elephants in the room. It values the goal rather than the payoff, seeming satisfied more when a young man is holding a book rather than a trophy.
But make no mistake, without Terrence Howard, Pride wouldn't work, period. He plays Ellis with conviction and might, making quiet moments for this character where dialogue can't reach, making this man more complete than the movie is capable of. When he's proud of his team, the most heartfelt things he says are with his eyes, not his mouth.
Is this movie honestly worth such a great actors time? Not really, but I certainly understand what drives Howard to make this movie. He wants to show genuine role models to young black men and women who are worthy of praise. In the last few years, he has played pimps, killers, and spineless executives. While these performances have garnished him with awards and praise, I believe that he wanted to look his audiance in the eye and say "This is a man you SHOULD be looking up to".
I must make a mention of Lionsgate Films, who has produced this movie, not to mention, one of my favorite films of last year, Akeelah and the Bee. It seems that "urban films" seem to represent the fantasy of thug life, or rampant drug or sexual deviancy. Lionsgate has made two important films in the last year that tries to step away from this cliche of the urban black expirience, but tries to replace it with wholesome black entertainment that any family, no matter their color, would feel worthy to show their families. While Pride does have a little more language than I think is warrented in a PG movie, I still say that it's a fine film to show to the kids.
All in all, this is not a great movie, but one still worthy of admiration and praise. Especially after seeing the horrendously stupid The Last Mimsy, I'd say that it's worth the effort to swim upstream to catch Pride. |
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