I probably can't be objective because of my involvement as a youth in gay protest, it brought raw emotions to recall how angry we young people were then. It was scary times, AIDS, homophobia and arrest for protest.
I wept throughout and laughed because it brought to life my youth as I lived it in protest against that evil woman and her kind who dared to tell us how to live our lives, and who we couldn't legally love. What I want to say about this film is that young gay and straight people should see it.
The movie got the details exactly right, I and many of my gay friends were on lots of marches including the ones against Clause 28 the evil Tory piece of legislation that outlawed promotion of homosexuality in schools and publicly funded museums and art gallerias (among others). I remember the Miners support at the 85 and we were greatly touched at the time. I was a young gay man in 1984 and I and friends, travelled to both the 84 and 85 Pride marches in London. I have just watched this film and on a personal level it affected me greatly. The miners are defeated and return to work but at the Pride march the following year a vast contingent of miners show up to repay their comrades with their show of support. When a bigot tries to sabotage the partnership with a tabloid smear Mark turns it back on her with a hugely successful benefit concert to which most of the villagers, now thoroughly in tune with their gay friends, turn up. Almost by accident a mini-bus full of gays find themselves in the Welsh village of Onllwyn in the Dulais valley and through their sincere fund raising and Jonathan's nifty disco moves persuade most of the community that they are on the same side. Not only are gays being threatened by Thatcher but the miners are on strike in response to her pit closures and Northern Irish activist Mark Ashton believes gays and miners should show solidarity. In 1984 20 year old closet gay Joe hesitantly arrives in London from Bromley for his first Gay Pride march and is taken under the collective wing of a group of gay men and Lesbian Steph, who meet at flamboyant Jonathan and his Welsh partner Gethin's Soho bookshop.