There’s been some ire over the weekend after various outlets (including BGPS) reported that the cover for the recently released US DVD of the gay-themed movie Pride doesn’t just omit all reference to homosexuality from the blurb, but also edits the main image on the back cover to completely remove a banner referring to the film’s main group, ‘Lesbians & Gays Support The Miners’.
The changes don’t just seem to have caught the general public by surprise, but also CBS Films, which owns the US rights to the movie and which released the movie in cinemas. However for the DVD release they passed things over to Sony Pictures, who handle their home entertainment releases and who brought the movie out on DVD in the US.
On Sunday, CBS Films took to Twitter, responding to Pink News’ initial story about the changes to the DVD cover, saying, ‘@pinknews we’re looking into this now and our page for the film remains the same as it has for months: http://cbsfilms.com/pride/‘.
It appears Sony Pictures is yet to make any comments. Some are also wondering whether, although CBS Films’ remarks suggest they’ve been taken by surprise, they really had no idea these changes had been made.
The BBC meanwhile quotes Ben Roberts, director of the BFI film fund, which backed Pride, as saying: “I’m not surprised that the US distributors have taken a decision to sell more copies by watering down the gay content. I’m not defending it, it’s wrong and outmoded, but I’m not surprised.
“It’s an unfortunate commercial reality both here and in the US that distributors have to deal with and consider in getting films onto the shop shelf. LGBT material is largely marginalised outside of rare hits like Brokeback Mountain.”
Pride follows a group of lesbians and gay men from London in the 1980s, who decide to raise funds to support striking miners, who are fighting against Margaret Thatcher’s plans to shut down their pits. However they soon discover that many miners, including their national union, don’t want to take money from a bunch of gays, until a small Welsh village agrees to take the cash. This marks the beginning of an unexpected bond between the big city gays and the tiny, rural mining community.
You can take a look at a comparison between the original Pride image and the photoshopped US DVD cover version below.
Leave a Reply (if comment does not appear immediately, it may have been held for moderation)