"Pride" *** (out of four): Simple but effective underdog story inspired by the life of Jim Ellis, the coach who took a condemned inner-city Rec Center and created a World Class swim team.

Pride” is inspired by the story of Jim Ellis who in the 1970s took the condemned Marcus Foster Recreation Center, in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia, and turned it into a swimming facility for local kids, churning out young swimming scholars in the process. The film is centered on Mr. Ellis’ first year at P.D.R. (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) when he found a way to take a small group of black teens and coach them to the white-dominated Nationals. As you would imagine, many lessons are learned by the characters and there are a lot of swelling strings along the way - this is after all a classic, at times formulaic, underdog story. But it’s an effective one all the same.

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