Notes on Pressure (1975)

How Does The Theme of Collective Identity Come Across in Pressure?

• In the film Pressure, made in 1975, it is mainly the use of the mise en scene that represents to the audience how the main character of Tony and his family and friends react to their experience of racism living in Britain in the 1970s.
• In this particular film, there are four main aspects of the characters lives that represent to the audience the changing values of Tony and how he deals with the racism seen experienced by him in the film.
  

Food - Cultural Signifier:

• In the breakfast scene, Tony is seen to be eating what appears to be a fry up, a typical British breakfast, while his brother is seen eating an avocado, breakfast more typical of a Caribbean lifestyle.
• As well as the obvious difference in the foods the brothers are eating, there is also a difference in how these two characters are eating their meals. Tony is portrayed as eating 'properly' with a knife and fork, while his older brother Colin is eating his meal with his hands.
• Tony is also presented as having a love for the traditional British food of fish & chips, even in one scene of the film rejecting his mother's offer of rice and peas for dinner and instead opting to go out and buy fish & chips for himself.
• Another scene in the film also sees Tony out with a group of his friends, all of whom are going to buy some patties, a traditional Jamaican meal. However, Tony once again chooses to not join his friends in this and instead chooses to have chips again.
  

Physical Environment:

• The films setting of London is portrayed as being a harsh environment for black people to live in at the time the film is set in the 1970s.
• Tony is presented as being accepted by the younger generation of white people and is not seen to be 'alienated' when he is with this particular crowd of people. He fits in, and his group of friends clearly accept him for who he is.
• However, he appears to be more alienated and vulernable to the people around him in scenes where he is walking through the streets on his own.
• In ways, when Tony is walking through the streets on his own wearing the style of clothes that white people would be wearing at the time, he looks as though he doesn't know who he is and where he belongs in Britain.
• The flat where Tony lives with his older brother and his parents is your standard middle class lifestyle flat, with his father owning his own shop thats below where they live.
• Their home environment is typical of the conditions that middle class black people would have lived in in the 1970s, though despite this fact, a number of Tony's West Indian friends are basically homeless and are squatting in unused houses which are in extremely poor conditions.
  

Hair & Fashion:

• As Tony's identity as a black person living in Britain becomes more apparent to him throughout the film, his style and fashion change with him.
• At the beginning of the film, he is seen wearing clothes typically worn by white kids living in Britain at the time.
• In comparison to other black people in the film he stands out in terms of his image, and the major difference in his appearance and that of other black people in the film represents him to the audience as being 'different' due to him being born in Britain.
• As the film goes on and Tony is seen discovering his identity as a black person in Britain, the way his hair is styled and the clothes which he wears evolve into the style that is basically the same as the other black characters in the film.
• A key point in the film which presents this is when Tony goes to the first black power meeting. While the audience originally sees him wearing typically British style of clothes for the time, it is from this scene onwards that we see him wearing clothes more similar to that of other black people at the meeting.
  

Language:

• Language plays a large role in how Tony is presented to the audience as a black teenager living in 1970s Britain.
• Tony speaks in what could be described as being typical British speech. His accent is typical of a London accent, and throughout the film it is clear to the audience that he has picked up a cockney accent through being born and raised in the London area.
• The fact that all of the other black characters in the film have a Caribbean accent portrays to the audience how Tony through being born and growing up in Britain has almost lost part of his culture, he doesn't have that link with the Caribbean that his family and friends who are originally from the West Indies have.

Notes on Black History in Britain...

Britain in the 1970s...

• Population in the 1970s was around 54 million.
• There were a number of major strikes that took place in this decade, including: postal strikes, miner strikes and dustmen strikes.
• In February 1972, a three day working week was imposed in order to save electricity.
• Water supplies reached a critical low after a long drought spell in the summer of 1976.
• The Queen's Silver Jubilee was celebrated all round the country in 1977.
• Technology was rapidly increasing, with 91% of families in Britain having a TV by 1971.
• The first domestic microwave, VHS video recorder and Sony Walkman also became available to the public during the 1970s.
• The currency rate of money in Britain also went under dramatic changes.
• The 1970s were also the era of global travel, with the first Pan Am Boeing 747 jetplane landing in Heathrow airport in 1970.

Britain in the 1980s...

• Population of Britain in 1981 was just over 56 million, a 2 million increase in ten years.
• In 1982, over 50% of households in Britain how had a telephone.
• 1988, the first digital mobile phone was invented, although they were expensive and large.
• In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falklands and Britain became involved in the Falklands War.
• The fan heater, kettle, hair dryer, toaster, microwave and phone all became more accessibly to homes in Britain during the 1980s.
• Seat belts were made compulsory for the front seats of cars in 1983.
• Microsoft computer software was invented in 1985, and the World Wide Web was first thought of in 1989.

Racial Tensions in Britain in the 1970s...

• Groups known as the 'Skinheads' or 'Skins' in the 1970s were linked with far-right political views and racism, despite being known for listening to reggae music and using black slang in their language.
• Young Afro-Caribbean Londoners took up what is known as the 'Rasta' lifestyle, adopted from the Rastafarians from the Caribbean. The lifestyle that this group of people adopted was due to them wanting to establish an identity as black people living in London at the time, a new identity away from previous generations who stuck with the stereotype of them being 'West Indian Immigrants'.
• This particular group though experienced a number of racial tensions in the 1970s, with members of these group being made to feel that London was like a place of exile and a place where only conflict that was caused by racial tensions took place.
• The National Front was a political party and was set up in 1967, and by the year 1973 had around 17,000 members. The party had a large number of activists between 1976 and 1977, with a number of these members creating race wars and committing a number of racist attacks.
• There were a reported 31 murders of black people in racist attacks between 1976 and 1981.
• One of the victims was 17 year old Sikh teenager, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, who was stabbed to death in a brutal attack by 5 white youths on 4th June 1976. Despite his murderers being found, they were never convicted of their crime, and the police dismissed the murder as having nothing to do with a racial discrimination.
• Open racism in Britain reached breaking point in the Southall Riots on 23rd April 1979. A mass fight broke out after thousands of protestors gathered to protest against a campain meeting by the National Front.
• The cause for this mass protest was due to the fact this campaign meeting was taking place in Southall Town Hall, an area which at the time was one of the countries largest areas of Asian communities.
• 40 people, including 21 police were injured in the fight that broke out, with a further 300 being arrested. There was also one death, a 33 year old teacher originally from New Zealand died after receiving severe head injuries which were reportedly from a police baton.

Why was the film 'Pressure' made?

• 'Pressure' could have been made in order to get across to the audience the treatment of black people in the UK during the 1970s when the film was set.
• The film gives the audience a clear view of what life for many black people living in Britain was like, for both older and younger generations.
• The film shows how older generations of white people were less tolerant of black people living in Britain at the time, while younger generations are presented as being more tolerant and more accepting of who they are as people and not about the colour of their skin.
• 'Pressure' also gives the audience a real insight into how a number of black people fought to gain the same rights and opportunities as white people that the government at the time were denying them.
• The film represents a different view of Black Britain as it is representing the situation that was taking place in the 1970s from the point of view of a group of black people, giving a more realistic representation possibly to give the audience a real idea of what it was like for a number of black people living in Britain during this time.