Stress in Pushing Tin Film - Case Study Example

Stress in Pushing Tin film In the film Pushing Tin, its cast includes Cusack, John, who acts as Falzone Nick, Thornton Billy Bob, who plays the character of Russell, Cate Blanchett as Connie Falzone among a list of other actors who are also involved in the film. The film is directed by Newell Mike in which the film’s release date was 1999 in the USA (Linson 107). The film is written by Darcy Fey, Glen Charles and even Les Charles. One of the dominant themes in this film is that of stress, which refers to reactions that cause the body to be bothered both physically and mentally. Further, stress can also make reference to a part of life which is ubiquitous in which researchers have intimated that there are different types of stress. In this regard, this essay will analyze the film Pushing Tin from the stress perspective based on the chapter on “the stress of the workplace” as the point of reference. Essentially, acute stress is one type of stress, which denotes the one in which an individual is excited, hence becoming an exciting stress where this type of stress keeps a person alert and also active. Chronic stress is the other type of stress whereby it affects the body by causing health problems in which this reaction may result from the body experiencing tension or when it senses danger. Based on this, the process in which the body reacts to these stimuli is known as fight or flight where the hormones react to the surge all through the body. Drawing from this, the Pushing Tin film outlines stress at the workplace clearly as portrayed by the characters in the same (Dewe et. al 1). For one, Nick Falzone together with his colleagues, where their job is to ensure that there is no traffic in the air, become proud and start to brag about the way they are capable of coping with extreme stress found in their job. These work mates go to the extent of comparing themselves with half of the new employees who have quit the job because they lacked the ability to manage the work related stress. However, it does not take long before Nick and his fellow colleagues are joined by a confident man known as Russell Bell, who challenges them with his ability for coping with the work related stress despite him applying difficult and dangerous techniques. Therefore, Nick becomes very stressed and even stubs Russell at the back by making false claims to their director, that include Russells being a reckless cannon, by saying that he had seen him daring an aircraft to be propelled violently making Nick even more stressful. Work stress is also experienced by the members of the Tracon when they are threatened that there would is a bomb scheduled to destroy them together with the facility hence leading to physiological stress. In the unfolding events, every person is ordered to evacuate that area, however, both Nick and Russell, volunteer to take the responsibility of operating all the aircrafts which are landing for them to land safely. This move by Nick and Russell also aims at allowing the people to evacuate before the bomb explodes within 26 minutes. However, as the time for the bomb to explode approaches, Nick decides to scamper for safety, leaving Russell to complete the task, where he faces the risk of dying and does the best to ensure that the bomb does not explode. His efforts finally bear fruit as he succeeds in his mission to which he receives praise from the others hence becoming their hero. On the other hand, Nick experiences stress when his wife Connie leaves him, which later spills over to him experiencing a lot of stress at his workplace. In fact, this affects him to the extent that he loses his job position as he is sent home because of losing his concentration at work. The incident that led to this event was that Nick almost made him to almost cause two aircrafts to collide while they were still in the air. However, Nick decides to deal with his stress and he goes to seek advice from Russell, who tells him in a polite way how he can overcome his stress at work, which requires that he resolves his personal issues first. Nick does this without fully understanding what stressful things Russell is undergoing, which further leads Nick to be shown practically. With the help of Russell, Nick is able to cope with his stress and when he returns back to work, he fully concentrates on his job and regains his position after being able to cope with the work stress and also reconciles with his wife, Connie. Additionally, Nick also experiences stress at work when he becomes uncomfortable with working with Russell after he realizes that Russell had discovered that his wife had cheated on him with Nick. He thinks that after Russell being told by his wife about them cheating on him, he would seek revenge on him by cheating with on him with his wife Connie. As a result, Nick loses focus and at some point thinks that Russell is intentionally trying to revenge on him through sabotage by controlling the craft directly to the storm. In conclusion, Nick is able to overcome his stress by changing his attitude towards stress. Further, Nick’s psychological stress leads him into a deep depression and also the motivation that he had for doing his job decreases instantly, which influences him to loss his self-esteem and stop boasting about how he can manage any work related stress. In the beginning, Nick suffered from acute stress as he was used to be so active and joyful at work until the day he started experiencing competition from his colleague, Russell. The implication of this as presented in the film is that stress does cause a lot of problems leading them to lose focus and work in unhealthy environments, which can lead an individual to under-perform if they do not deal with the problem from its root as it was in Nick’s case. Work cited Dewe, Philip, Michael P. O'Driscoll, and Cary L. Cooper. Coping with Work Stress: A Review and Critique. U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Internet resource. Linson, Art. What Just Happened?: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line. New York: Grove Press, 2008. Print. Read More