Rod Serling meets Michael Powell (by Zen Bones) |
I don't know why this film is virtually unknown. For its time it must have been very controversial and even today it still packs a wallop of a punch. But I am as equally impressed by the style of this film as I am with the performances and the screenplay. Fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE will feel right at home with the stark B&W stylization of the dream sequences and the childhood flashbacks. Yet like any great film, it doesn't let its style overwhelm the viewer. It simply acts as a springboard from which it can stun the viewer with the emotional impact of the story. It takes a lot to <more> |
Excellent two-man character study. (by sultana-1) |
Bobby Darin gives the performance of his career in this excellent if virtually unknown film. He is 100% believable as an American Nazi who tries to play psychiatrist Poitier like a violin with some success. Poitier is equally marvelous as the psychiatrist who must work extremely hard to take himself out of the process so he can concentrate on helping his patient. I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end by both actors' incredibly sexy performances. Peter Falk is excellent in the small role of Poitier's young protege. |
Powerful Groundbreaking Film (by Alfriend) |
This film in 1962 was quite controversial. Even having an African-American as a sole lead of a film was quite rare and often worrisome to film studios concerned about making money. Sadly this is still an issue amongst film studios today. If you can't get Denzel Washington many films that would star a black character are shelved. Case in point, a few years back Spike Lee was trying to do a film based on Jackie Robinson, because he couldn't get Denzel, the film was temporarily shelved. Sydney Poitier was the lone black film star of the time. Sadly in the late 60's people would brand <more> |
a psychiatrist sidney Poitier analyzes a neo-Nazi bobby Darin (by dougbrode) |
One of the pioneering films of the early sixties, allowing for more freedom of the screen in terms of both subject matter and style, still waits to be rediscovered. It's Pressure Point, which almost - but not quite - made a fullblown movie star out of Bobby Darin. He had always hoped to be the next Sinatra not only in terms of singing but also acting, and he had the chops for each - though timing was against him as the Beatle invasion dimmed interest in American pop stars. Still, he did appear in about a dozen films, none more remarkable than this study of a psychiatrist Sidney Poitier <more> |
Excellent social drama that doesn't opt for easy answers (by bwaynef) |
Splendidly acted social drama produced by Stanley Kramer. As is usually the case with Kramer productions except perhaps "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" , "Pressure Point" looks at society and the human condition, finding much to admire, but also much to deplore. Sidney Poitier is on the side of righteousness, playing a black prison psychiatrist whose ideals are challenged by his patient, a bigoted Nazi played by singer Bobby Darin.The film is most impressive for its refusal to pander to an audience whose enjoyment might be enhanced if all the conflicts between the <more> |
A lot of great films owe their existence to such brilliant antecedents. (by budmassey) |
Pressure Point is a taught drama that pits a Nazi prisoner against an black psychiatrist. The story, its presentation and direction are remarkably ahead of their time, and present an object lesson in good cinema that might have saved us such unfortunate and forgettable pretension as Memento if only people bothered studying cinema before inflicting their version of it on the moviegoing public.Bobby Darin plays the charismatic young man who is imprisoned during WWII for Nazi activities in the U.S. Poitier is riveting as the doctor who treats him for insomnia, but discovers pathologies many <more> |
Pushes His Buttons (by bkoganbing) |
Reflecting back on another case during the days of World War II, psychiatrist Sidney Poitier is telling colleague Peter Falk not to give up on a case he has with racial differences between him and the patient in Pressure Point. Science and the doctor's obligation to render assistance cancel all things out.Twenty years back from the Civil Rights era, at its height when Pressure Point was made, back to World War II Poitier is a prison psychiatrist who gets one bad patient. It's Bobby Darin who had never been seen like this on film, as a racist punk who belongs to the German American <more> |
Interesting Psychological Study (by jeremy3) |
At the beginning of the film Peter Falk's character storms into the office of the head psychiatrist Sidney Poitier , and complains about how he can't take it anymore dealing with a black patient he has been assigned to analyze. The head psychiatrist goes into a long story about a somewhat similar situation he had encountered back at the beginning of WWII.The character he studies, played by Bobby Darin, had a mother who was bedridden, and a father who was a sadistic, alcoholic, womanizing beast. He has now become a sociopath. The race issue becomes a huge part of the issue. The <more> |
Excellent Film (by whpratt1) |
This film deals with a young man named Patient, Bobby Darin who is put in prison and has big problems with his inmates and is placed in the care of the chief psychiatrist, Sidney Poiter . As soon as the patient sees his psychiatrist he starts laughing because he is an Africian American and this immediately indicates he has a problem with this man's race. As the film has many flashbacks, you learn that the Patient hates the Jewish people and was an only child and had a father he hated and a mother who was constantly ill. This film talks about the Depression Period in American History <more> |