Synopsis: In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, PRESSURE follows General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg as they face an impossible choice—launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.
What We Thought:
Pressure is a fascinating look at how weather played a crucial role in deciding on when D-Day would be. If you’re a history buff you know the results of the film, but the performances and tension of the film keep the audience engaged throughout.
Andrew Scott plays James Stagg, a Scottish meteorologist brought in to advise Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) on the weather forecast for the days selected for the storming of Normandy. Chris Messina plays Irving P. Krick, an American meteorologist, who helped Eisenhower make decisions in Northern Africa. Krick and Stagg clash with Krick using historical stats and Stagg using current reports/data and his knowledge of weather patterns for Europe. Krick says June 5th is a go whereas Stagg insists storms are coming and D-Day needs to be delayed.
If you know your history you know D-Day is June 6th so you know which man wins out, but that’s fine. Scott has never been better and Fraser channels his inner Ike. Messina is solid and the cast also includes Oscar nominee Kerry Condon and Emmy & Golden Globes winner Damian Lewis. The performances mixed with the production design and built in drama of the situation make for a solid war-adjacent drama.
That’s the best way to describe Pressure, war-adjacent. What I mean by that is, despite it taking place during World War II, it’s not a clear-cut war film. It has some battle scenes later on with the events at Omaha Beach at Normandy, but it’s a situational drama more than war flick. It’s similar to The Imitation Game about mathematician Alan Turing trying to break the German coding used with Enigma. Without these human elements the war drags on or goes the other way. History buffs will absolutely dig the film and it’s a great movie for dads/dudes who have entered their WWII nerd stage. I think it should have been released closer to Father’s Day, but it’s out just after Memorial Day instead. It’s a quick watch with a short runtime so it jumps right into the drama fast and never wanders far from what it’s trying to talk about. For all those reasons, it is…
RECOMMENDED!
Directed By: Anthony Maras
Written By: David Haig and Anthony Maras
Cast: Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, Damian Lewis
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