Pressure...

Why do you think Pressure was made?
I think the film Pressure was made to portray the changing attitudes towards Black British individuals. An example of this in the film is when Tony went to a club with his white friends and was dancing with a white girl. If you compare this to the era when Sapphire was released, it would have been rare for this to occur because white and black individuals would no even be in the same club. I can remember that in Sapphire clubs were basically segregated according to race; it would have been uncommon for a white individual to be in a black to club/environment or vice versa. However, the film Pressure seems to show Britain moving forward as a society as it seems to challenge problems regarding race, that were seen in the film Sapphire.

Also, I believe that the film was made to show the economic conditions in Britain during that time. Even though Tony was a Black British male with god qualifications it was still a struggle for him to get a job. In the first job interview he went to, it was probable that he would not get the job due to the interviewers behaviour towards him. Therefore, it was apparent to the viewer that Tony was simply not getting the jobs because of the colour of his skin, even though he was a well-spoken black male born in Britain.

Generally, I believe that the film was made to show the challenges and ordeals that black individuals faced in the British society due to the colour of their skin. There were boundaries placed before them and also there were certain levels they could not pass solely because they were black.


What examples of racism are represented in Pressure?
-When Tony went for his first job interview the interviewers countenance changed as soon as he saw Tony because he believed that he was going to be interviewing a white guy. Mr. Cripson (the interviewer) asked him stereo-typical questions like:
'How long have you been in this country?' and 'Have you ever been in trouble?'
In my opinion from this Mr. Cripson was trying insinuate that because Tony is black he is a trouble maker and he also assumed that Tony was not born in Britain when in fact he was.

-When the police invaded Colin's speech even though they did not have a warrant. When the police raided the speech they were practically arresting every black person though they were innocent and had done nothing wrong. This shows the limited rights that black people had at the time.

-From the film I also thought wherever black people were the police were immediately there, for example during Colin's speech. Also, when Tony and his black friends ran out of the supermarket the police were outside within a matter of seconds as they thought that they had probably stole something or caused trouble. Even when some of the individuals were out of sight the police were still determined to arrest them as they were still running trying to look for them.

How does the theme of collective identity come across in Pressure?
The first ideal of collective identity is portrayed in the breakfast scene where Tony is seen eating a traditional English fry-up whilst his brother Colin is eating an avocado for breakfast. In this scene Colin tells Tony that 'This is what we eat back home'. This shows a sense of collective identity as Colin is trying to make his brother feel among the collective of Black Caribbeans by persuade him to eat food originating from their roots.

How do you think Pressure differs from mainstream representations of black Britons?