Pride and Weekend Comparison

Weekend is a 2011 Romance, Drama film written and directed by Andrew Haigh. The film follows Russell who after a drunken night with his straight friends heads to a gay club and meets Glen. It’s expected to be a one night stand but it turns into something else, something special.  

Pride is a 2014 Comedy, Drama directed by Matthew Warchus and written by Stephen Beresford. It is set in the summer of 1984 and surrounds a group of U.K. gay activists working to help miners during their lengthy strike of The National Union Of Mineworkers.

These films have their similarities and differences particularly in themes and representation. The most obvious similarity is that both films are based on gay people and neither seem to be portrayed that stereotypically. Pride was based on a true story and so the characters based on real life people were probably true to life where as Weekend was completely fictional so they were able to portray the characters in any way they liked.

The representation of homosexuality in Weekend was neither solely positive or negative, it included both as there were scenes when you’d hear “Faggot” being shouted across the street which is obviously very negative and shows there are still people against homosexuality. However it was positive as the relationship between two men was shown from their point of view so it was shown as any relationship that would be between a man and a woman. They did not show their homosexual relationship to be bad they portrayed it as a usual relationship. I would say they represented it as more positive as the majority of characters accepted that they were gay. In Weekend they showed themes of masculinity in one particular scene when Glen was talking to a man at the bar, and this man was having a discussion with Glen and although Glen asks if it’s because he’s gay the man never responds with yes or no almost as an attempt to keep his pride.

But in Pride the representation of homosexuality was more negative than positive. All throughout the film the gay people were trying to support and raise money for the miners who at first didn't want their support because they’re gay and in 1984 being gay was barely accepted. So although it was shown as negative at the time the overall portrayal of homosexuals was that they’re just normal people trying to help those in need. Masculinity was shown as a strong theme from many characters. With particular men at the bar really disliking the fact that gay people were trying to raise money for them. However after seeing one of the gay men dancing with a woman he liked he almost gave up his masculine ‘pride’ and asked to be taught how to dance because he knew she liked it.