The Heroes of "Pride" Wouldn't Stand For Their DVD Packaging!
Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 7:00PM I accidentally got two copies of the Pride DVD in the mail for Christmas. I had bought one not knowing that I'd be sent one from the studio. But no matter. Now I have one to gift and just about anyone would love to receive it. I recently talked to my best girlfriend from high school and I can't remember if I've shared this story but it's worth repeating even if I have.
She and her husband had accidentally gone to see it at a movie theater in Michigan (I didn't interrogate the accidentally part) and liked it so much that they went again the following week and brought another married couple with them. Isn't that great? A decade ago when the theatrical window was longer the movie could have surely found a much larger audience.
About that DVD though...
A scoop from Pink News today alerted me to the fact that I should pay closer attention to DVD packaging. It seems that Sony Pictures has removed all mention of "gay" or LGBT" from the packaging and official synopsis. If you look at the photo above you'll see that they've even photoshopped out the "Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners" banner in the background of one of the film's two Gay Pride marches.
"Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners" or LGSM is the official name of the collective protagonist organization and exactly what the film is about. They made a huge difference not just for striking miners in the 1980s but for Union nondiscrimination laws thereafter. The synopsis now refers to the group only as "London based activists".
To put all these feisty gays and lesbians back in the closet when the entire movie is about people, gay and straight, who refuse to be bullied into submission by homophobes or Thatcher's horrible dehumanizing rule is every kind of wrong. The LGSM in the movie even questions whether they should work anonymously because of homophobic thinking and their own fear and decide that it wouldn't be right.
What was Sony thinking?!?
In Happier News
To not end on sour note I urge you to visit Nick's Flick Picks for this glorious long read celebrating "collaboration" in 2014. It's a particularly fresh angle for a year in review piece, and yet more wonderful for this film year when so many of the finest movies were about solidarity (Two Days One Night, Pride, Selma, etcetera) or, if they weren't, focused on small duos or trios with gripping connections. If you don't have time to read all pieces of this today visit a few times until you've absorbed them. I particularly enjoyed the write-ups of We Are the Best!, Happy Christmas, Lilting, Pride and Reese Witherspoon & Laura Dern for Wild.
Best Ensemble, DVD, LGBT, Pride, politics
Reader Comments (9)
There are a couple of ways to look at this.
1. It sucks. Big time.
2. It might prevent the film from only being stocked/listed in the Gay/Lesbian section and being missed by potential viewers who could stumble onto it otherwise or being passed up entirely by stores in certain parts of the country which won't carry overtly gay/lesbian films.
In either case, unless they have edited it, people in the know will find it and love it all the same.
Are they editing the itunes trailer as well? Does anyone buy a DVD anymore based on the cover alone? In any case, seems silly to fake out your customers. But everything about the marketing of this film was wrong. Brainless Hollywood really doesn't deserve the money they make.
I'm actually ok with it. Imagine someone who would ordinarily dismiss the film sight-unseen having their mind changed by a good story and strong characterisation. If this is about reaching a wider audience, then I'm all for it.
I don't think they're necessarily afraid of what they have; I think they want it to get seen.
Ridiculous and sad. They've bungled this film in how many ways now?
I just watched "Pride" less than 24 hours ago and was blown away. It is what good film making is all about and should be. This is truly a film for everyone and no one should deny themselves the pleasure of experiencing the emotional wallop and deep humanity the film offers.
Quite frankly I believe that a film like this should be mandatory viewing in schools just as certain classic novels must be read. Anyone who does not shed a tear at some point in this film has no heart.
Getting back to the art work and complete abolishing of the LGSM movement I don't like it one bit. This is 2015 and we are no longer in the 1950's as to quote a line in the film.
However, this film is much, much more than a "gay" film. It is a universal lesson in tolerance, love, human support, compassion and many other truly socially redeeming values that need to be reinforced in all our selfish lives.
How many outlets have picked up this story? I know THR has (and still has a piece on their site--awards section). If it made the national news, it could be the best thing to happen to the film.
MWAH.
(And not just for the lovely shout-out, for the eagle-eye on this crappy marketing choice.)
The film is about the LGSM and Sony decides to remove all references about LGSM from its DVD cover???
Hmmmm - well this is the same mob who bowed down to the North Koreans recently so I'm not really surprised.
I'm guessing the people in charge at Sony aren't very intelligent.
It makes no sense. I don't even see how it would find a wider audience. It seems to me that the type of person who would be turned off by the "Lesbians and Gays" would probably not choose a film about striking workers especially those in another country.
Sony seems clueless about marketing, PR as well as IT security.