‘Pride’ dives into new
sports movie territory

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

Underprivileged minorities in the big city excel under the guidance of a motivational coach. You’ve probably seen or heard of movies like this because they’re released a couple of times a year.
Usually it’s sports like basketball or football. Pride has a similar story, but this time around it’s a different sport.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t manage to be much different from movies like Coach Carter and Glory Road. Instead of shooting a buzzer-beater to win the game, this movie’s underdogs must excel in the breaststroke and backstroke to win a state championship swim meet.
In another based-on-a-true-story movie, Pride tells the tale of Jim Ellis, a real-life Philadelphia man who has brought the sport of swimming to many youngsters.
The movie begins with Ellis (Terrence Howard) facing racism in a college swim competition. He’s arrested for protecting his honor, which obviously has a major influence on his life.
Fast-forward a few years and Ellis is a college graduate looking for his first teaching job. When the fictional Mainline Academy turns him down, he reluctantly takes a janitorial job at the Marcus Foster Recreation Center.
Foster Rec is supposed to be closing down, and Ellis is hired to help clean up under the watchful eye of Elston (Bernie Mac). There are a few neighborhood kids who like to shoot hoops outside, but one day they show up and find their precious rim gone.
Inside the rec center is a deserted pool, which Ellis has filled, and he swims laps in it. He invites the kids inside to cool off from the summer heat. Soon the kids are swimming and Ellis sees potential. He starts a swim team and arranges for them to compete against other teams.
Since this story is unfolding in the 1970s, racism is prevalent throughout the film. Bink (Tom Arnold), the coach of the all-white Mainline Academy team, and his swimmers ridicule the PDR (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) team and even refuse to compete against them at a meet.
There are a few dramatic moments, but it’s all resolved quickly. In one scene, some thugs vandalize the rec center and Ellis goes off on them. Mac and Ellis also fight a half-hearted battle with a city councilwoman (Kimberly Elise) to keep the rec center open.
Even with all its familiarity, first-time director Sunu Gonera does the underdog story well. You’ll emphatically cheer for Ellis and PDR. Ellis has his troubles, but in the end he comes off as a good guy. None of the individual kids is particularly memorable. Most of them are not given a back story, so we don’t know anything about them out of the pool except that swimming probably keeps them off the streets and away from drugs.
Since swimming is not much of an action or contact sport, like football or basketball, it’s particularly difficult to build any kind of suspense. Plus you can guess what the end result will be in a movie like this anyway.
There are a few humorous bits — there are bound to be some jokes when guys have to wear Speedos. Bernie Mac’s character, Elston, is a nice comedic sidekick to Ellis. Howard, nominated for an Oscar for Hustle & Flow, puts in some of his best and most moving work here.
Like last year’s Invincible, Pride depicts Philadelphia life in the 1970s. Of course this is a different perspective and there’s appropriate R&B music to complement the story.
The idea to tell a swimming story is a nice change for the underdog sports drama. Throughout the course of the film, we learn that to Ellis, PDR means Pride, Determination and Resilience. This film is the embodiment of that motto, and it’s good to see someone like Jim Ellis, who has spent 30 years coaching youth swimmers, celebrated for his hard work. oo
Movie Grade: B ••