USCCB’s Review of Pride

Once you get past the generic title, Pride (Lionsgate) proves an engagingly inspirational, true-life tale of an inner-city swim team in 1971 Philadelphia. And while it treads familiar sports-movie ground it doesn't just tread water, but briskly hits all its marks about hope, teamwork, believing in oneself and overcoming adversity.

Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) is a coach who is hired to shut down a dilapidated Philadelphia community house. The only other employee, janitor Elston (Bernie Mac), resents the interloper, and warily warns Ellis that if the "college boy" is going to scrub out the unused pool and try to fill it from a hose, then he had best be prepared to pay the water bill. But the cool of the pool turns out to be just the thing for the local teenage boys on a blistering summer's day after their basketball hoops are removed by the city.

Through example, quiet perseverance and a raising of the boys' (and eventually one girl's) expectations of themselves, Ellis eventually, with Elston's help, turns the teens into a team and makes the community house a source of local pride, showing African-American youths, despite all the surrounding poverty and crime, that they can compete with privileged suburban teens both in the pool and, eventually, in the world.

The emotion-tugging efficiency applied by Zimbabwe-born director Sunu Gonera, a veteran of Coca-Cola and Nike commercials, serves this period piece well. Howard further demonstrates the versatility that has let him range from the emasculated filmmaker of Crash to the scary characters of Hustle & Flow and Idlewild. Mac, despite a valiant effort, fails to make his character more than an unfortunate stereotype.

The film contains a relatively small amount of crude and crass language (including two instances of the n-word), a couple of scuffles and some vague threats of violence. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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