Pressure, written by S. Selvon, this movie now, when I think about it 20 years later reminds me of Spike's Do The Right Thing. After it was released, it came to pass a big uprising in LA, that for once the Gov. could NOT blame the communists for. Pressure shows life in Britain for first generation born brothers like myself, who were totally unprepared for the beast of racism that came at them once they left school. Not long after the film, there were uprisings in Notting Hill. I look back at that movie again, and it really is like a documentary like Cathy Come Home, fictional but so so real, and important because mainstream English media (which unlike the US has very little alternative voices) ignored or blamed on 'communist elements'. On a lighter side, check out Selvons books on life on London written from a bitter sweet Trini perspective. Zeech 1
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Zeech22 April 1999
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Vivid, only occasionally heavy-going account of African Caribbean experiences of Britain in the 1970s. Much interesting material on the cultural shift from the original post-WW2 generation of immigrants and the younger generation now native to Britain. It begins as an even-handed study and gradually takes sides - with good reason.
This is particularly of interest as an examination of how the original Trinidadian immigrants differed from their children who were born and bred in England. The older generation tend to be content to achieve on the terms defined by the English - hard work and respect for authority. This is not an option open to the youth, as represented in Herbert Norville's Tony. Perhaps the most incisive scene in the film is his job interview early in the film, with the unctuous insincerity of the boss Mr Crapson (John F. Landry), a Steve Pemberton lookalike complete with Bobby Charlton comb-over; who is noticeably uneasy behind the false bonhomie. There's also a fascinating disco scene, with Tony meeting an old white girlfriend, who has managed to escape from the poor, inner city neighbourhood through getting work.
Horace Ove uses an eclectic cast, with such distinctive familiars from British culture as Tommy Vance and Norman Beaton present and correct. This works an intriguing cultural artifact from the mid-1970s - evocative terraces and tower blocks - and as a rare insight into the black British experience, as Black Power began to reflect concerns over unemployment, police brutality and racism.
Overall, "Pressure" is slightly too didactic to work as a whole for me, but an urgent, interesting piece of film-making all the same. -
Anglo-Trinidadian filmmaker Horace Ove broke many barriers with his micro-budgeted independent effort PRESSURE,made in the mid-1970's.Ove should be applauded for making the first British film to address the experience of being black in the UK;he apparently came up against innumerable financial brick walls before the British Film Institute agreed to give him a modest amount of funding to make the film.This is all too obvious in the finished product,which is mostly filmed in humble,if not dingy,front and back rooms and church halls in grainy 16mm.Nevertheless,there are plenty of fascinating location shots of run-down Ladbroke Grove to prevent a sense of dreary claustrophobia setting in,and despite it's over-length and inevitable indie-style pretensions,the film does not date and still has considerable relevance to the present day.
An English-born black youth (Herbert Norville) frustratingly can't find a job in spite of his respectable educational qualifications,is subject to numerous prejudices and privations,and he gradually turns more radical after further events,particularly after police harassment against his militant older brother (Oscar James).Some of the incidents depicting racism from the indigenous white population,either casual or blatant,have become something of a cliché three decades later,and often seem a trifle over-literal and forced,but still produce some powerfully effective moments.Some of the white actors involved in these scenes are fairly well-known,such as John F.Landry,Philip Jackson and Australian-born Ed Deveraux (of SKIPPY THE BUSH KANGAROO fame).
Much of the script indulges itself in lengthy speeches,either in private rooms,or public meetings,which are predictably sermonising and preachy,but are deeply felt if not angry,and mostly well-performed by the overwhelmingly Afro-Caribeean cast.Ove obviously wants to address various issues,and despite some slightly over-emphatic acting and occasional difficulty in understanding the West Indian patois,he does this with considerable skill and intelligence,and it is astonishing that such a film as this managed to be made in this period where non-PC attitudes were at their most excessive;many of the actors involved,such as James,Norman Beaton,T-Bone Wilson and Ram John Holder,must have been delighted to see Black Britons treated in a much more dignified,realistic and non-stereotypical manner,as many at the time were forced to take parts in film and (especially) TV which reinforced such narrow-minded representations.For example,much of the cast here had roles in the notorious ITV sitcom of the early/mid 70's, LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR,the sort of programme which would result in instant rejection nowadays but ran for several series then to very large viewing figures.The old days weren't always the best!
Despite the sententious faults of the script,PRESSURE deserves to be better known (it was barely released in the cinemas because of it's then controversial subject matter),and Horace Ove should be given immense credit for breaking down artistic barriers which have been much imitated and improved on since.Another probable reason for it's perceived incompatibility was the abundance of bad language (unusual for a British film at the time) as well as it's sympathetic,realistic look at the Black way of life in the 1970's.It's a sad fact that the kind of ignorance,neglect and prejudice is still very much a problem in Britain in the 21st Century,and PRESSURE should be regarded as a contemporary reminder of such matters,as well as an invaluable chronicle of not-so-happy times past.
RATING:7 out of 10. -
gilesadhamilton30 September 2021London on the cusp of punk filmed around Ladbroke Grove is brought vividly to life. The film is no misery fest demonstrating that despite hurdles immigrants had a vibrant life. Great music. My only query is according to IMDb the actor playing Tony is nine years old. No way was he born in 1967.
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Sianed231 January 2009Pressure (12A), written /directed by Horace Ove (1976) Barbican, London 30th June 2005. Written by: SIANE DALEY
The Barbican Centre recently paid tribute to black filmmaker, Horace Ove, by dedicating a weekend to screen his films, including the socio-political film, 'Pressure' (1976).
Trinidad-born Horace, is internationally recognised as one of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post war period. He describes what it is like to watch the film 'Pressure' today.
"To see the film so many years later, it looks a little rough around the edges, but a lot of what is shown, actually happened and was reality", he says, "That is why the film was banned for two years by the critics. Luckily, the BFI took up the film in 1975 and agreed to finance it"
'Pressure' tells the story of Tony Walsh (Herbert Norville), a first-generation black-British teenager, who has left school, clutching a handful of O' levels, and is now trying to find work. He often gets through to interview stage (as a result of his 'english-sounding' name) but it's a different story when employers realise that he is black.
Every reader will identify with his mother's tirade (played by Lucita Lijertwood) when Tony returns home from yet another disappointing interview exclaiming, "Me an' yo' father work sooo hard, so that you and your brother won't go through the same sh*t we have".
Pressure therefore explores the conflict between first-generation-black youths who are alienated from both their West-Indian born parents, and their white peers. Horace confirms this stating, "Pressure as a film is not what you would expect, particularly during the seventies, and describes the kind of people that you find inhabiting these two worlds the 'Wind-rush' generation versus their first-generation British children".
Tony's brother Colin, tries to bridge this racial/social gap by becoming an active member of the Black Panther Movement, whose meetings feature prominently in the film. He is also exposed as a 'hypocrite' by Tony, for having a white girlfriend whilst also proclaiming 'black-power'.
At an all-night party, Tony is given an interesting socio-political view of religion from one of his friends, who remarks that, "Sunday is the day that black people get dressed up to go to church, get down on their knees and ask a white man for forgiveness"
In the next scene, the black preacher (Norman Beaton), reinforces this message in his sermon when he commands the congregation to "cast all black thoughts from your mind, and replace them with pure white thoughts." At this, Tony rolls his eyes heavenward and silently sucks his teeth.
Horace explains his reason for the poignant social commentary in the film. He says, "It was interesting to make all these socio-political films at the time as the political climate was there, and what I did was to reflect that as honestly as I could. I would describe 'Pressure' as a 'political-humanist' film, which was filmed in a drama-documentary style even the actors are real people and play themselves, talking in naturalistic dialogue to keep the reality of the film".
The turning point for Tony comes when he is hanging on the streets with friends and they commit a burglary which goes awry and one of them is arrested. Tony decides to take a menial porter job and attends his brother's Black Panther meeting, during which the idea is discussed that black people should set up their own schools for black children. This is a highly topical comment, as this very idea was recently proposed by Trevor Phillips, the Commissioner for Racial Equality, in 2004. In my opinion, themes like this make 'Pressure' a highly contemporary, and must-see-film that is ahead of its time.
The meeting is raided by the police and Tony is arrested along with his brother and other members. During a harrowing police-interrogation, Tony repeatedly protests his innocence.
A stark surrealist scene follows. The cinematography changes to black and white and Tony appears naked on a theatre stage and stealthily walks towards a bed that contains what looks like a person sleeping. Brandishing a knife, Tony repeatedly stabs the figure, drenching the stark white sheets with blood he then lifts the bedcover to reveal a 'pig' which he has violently-stabbed. I think that the link between this and the previous police-interrogation scene is self-evident!
Horace explains this film-technique, "Pressure is also a surrealist film as I tried to show what was going on in Tony's head, which other films were not doing at the time. I also wanted to mirror the two worlds that Tony lived in".
The film ends with the Black Panther Movement (including Tony), on a march with placards citing 'police brutality' outside a police station, in the pouring rain. This, in my opinion, symbolises Tony's continuing journey to a place of acceptance, and pride in his black-British heritage.
Written by: Siane Daley -
I am a white man from California but I did visit London in 1976. I love Jamaican Rasta culture and music. I found the political message to be very compelling, the characters were all sympathetic and not heavy handed caricatures. Don't really know about the reality of police brutality in this case but would not be surprised. Cinematically,this was very well done, a masterful director. A British-born younger son of an immigrant family from Trinidad finds himself adrift between two cultures. Loved this as a historical window into a fascinating culture. A very important movie I would recommend to anyone. http://www.movie2kto.ws/watch-movies/Pressure__1976/17047 here's a link where I watched it online Cheers
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mikeijay-355655 June 2022This film is life imitating art. Horace Ové did a wonderful job working with so very little to deliver a film which has aged remarkably well. However, few today know this film and even fewer know his name. Directors like Mike Leigh were celebrated in the late 80s / early 90s for their gritty portrayal of a snapshot of working class London life. Yet here in 1976 Ové did it first and never received much recognition for it. In very true to Spike Lee way before there even was a Spike Lee, Pressure has no ending. In 1976 there simply was no ending. Our protagonist, blessed with brains and O-levels comes to the realisation that both black and white are trapped in the same system. Maybe the whites are even worse off as they don't realise that they trapped. Tony's Red-Pill moment is profound - however, its 1976 and it wont help him get a decent job, or lesson the brutality and hardships that he will face simply due to the colour of his skin. Watching this 46 years the future there still isn't really an ending.
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Thank Margaret Thatcher for "Babylon", a tale of several West Indian youths living in a dank and dreary Great Britain. She's not mentioned in the film, but she might as well be the Bible's fork-tongued Whore of Babylon. Her city? London, to which the film's title alludes (Rastafarians and Christians use the word "Babylon" to refer to a corrupt and decadent society).
"Babylon" was directed by Franco Rosso, and was late to a wave of British films revolving around West Indians living in South London. The first of these was Horace Ove's "Pressure", also the first British film to be directed by a black director. Like "Pressure", "Babylon" is a gritty, neorealist account of black Londeners, chief among whom is Blue (played by reggae vocalist Brinsley Forde), a Rastafarian disc jockey who's trying to prepare for an upcoming music competition. Like the characters in "Pressure", Blue struggles with crime, racism, prejudice, violent slum life, personal and racial identity and finds the only positive outlet in his life – his music – repeatedly challenged.
The inter-war and postwar (1944-1962) years saw a huge increase in Caribbean migrants arriving in Britain. The first of these were lured over to fight in World War 2 (tens of thousands of West Indians were recruited for service in the RAF and Royal Navy), work in industries and agriculture, all sectors which were facing serious labour shortages. These shortages were only partly met by the recruitment of women and Irish workers. During the long, post-war Eropean economic boom, which was fuelled by reconstruction and American investment, immigration then began to further increase, leading to the creation of substantial immigrant communities in and around London. This, of course, led to frictions with the white working class, which culminated in the riots of the 1950s, in which white gangs such as the Teddy Boys clashed with black immigrant families. Far right groups, unions and the left would all exploit these conflicts. "Pressure" and "Babylon", made in the late 1970s, were themselves released in the wake of a second wave of Nottingham riots.
Unlike most films in its wave, "Babylon" has a certain aesthetic punch (traces of "Saturday Night Fever"). The film is packed with smooth Reggae tunes and seems to take place in an everlasting night, with eye popping lights and fluorescent colours languishing behind a blanket of perpetual cigarette smoke. It's a moody, easy going film, captures well the London club scene of the 1970s, the brutalist hell of concrete-London, and offers a rare glimpse into the lives of an oft neglected community (black, West Indian South Londoners). On the flip-side, the film's writing is obvious and too direct, a trait typical of even classic neorealist works; what you see is what you get.
Uniquely, the film eschews Jamaican and West Indian gangland culture in favour for focusing on the implicit radicalism of reggae. Reggae always was protest music, its fire the fire of the mobs. It didn't quite last, though. Protest music declined in the early 1980s, with the deaths of Marley, Lennon and the slow collapse of punk. Reggae then essentially became stoner and sex music, as roots reggae transformed into dance-hall.
Before this, reggae was a force. The best reggae had the proselytising fury of Dylan, to which groups like Burning Spear, The Abyssinians or dub-poet Linton Johnson inserted their own Rastafarian or political beliefs. This "spiritual" dimension gave the genre a Utopian, almost philosophical tinge; the desire for change "through" music. Indeed, albums were oft given provocative titles like "Confrontation" and "Uprising", lyrics were openly agitprop ("Come we go chant down Babyon one mo' time!") and even album art would feature dread-locked warrior-heroes (the Rasta's dreadlocks were oft likened to the manes of the lion of Judah) slaying monstrous "Babylon Dragons". "Babylon" itself ends with a singer chanting "we can't take no more of that!", a protest which is inter-cut with shots of police officers kicking down doors (the film was banned because censors feared that it would incite riots). There's a simplicity to the film's politics - things boil down to a very simple, noir existentialism ("The city's not right and we want out!") - but also a sense of raw, truthful anger.
Horace Ove's "Pressure" is an even more interesting snapshot, thanks largely to its low budget, which necessitated the casting of many non actors. Trinidadian born Ove (pronounced "O-vay") was heavily influenced by Italian neorealists, and used heavy improvisation and cinema-verite techniques to convey life in 1970s West London. Like "Babylon" the focus is on young, black West Indians, most of whom are second generation migrants and all of whom struggle with issues of cultural identity, institutional racism and cultural preservation. The film's central character is a kid called Tony who is radicalised by his brother, a black activist. Much of the film deals with the problems of employment, alienation, white power structures, inextricable class/race linkages, and the assimilation or mutation of cultural values (the immigrant's changing taste in food, music, culture, beliefs etc). Some of the film's more daring moments align Christianity itself with racism, in which, for example, men of power use "black" as a metaphor for sin and tout "white" as being synonymous with holiness. Like many neorealist works, much of the film consists of "stolen footage", many of those appearing on screen not realising they are on camera or attending staged rallies. Like "Babylon", indeed like most neorealist works, "Pressure" has a certain obviousness about it. These films are best appreciated as time capsules; historical totem poles. In a sense, the mark the birth of Thatcherism. Thatcher, of course, was elected as leader of the Conservative party in 1975, and quickly set about removing certain safeguards for citizens in favour for an emphasis on "individual responsibility" and "private initiative", all the while presiding over the "managed decline" of several segments of society. She was good with code words.
8.5/10