The weather is looking great for this WWII drama.
“Pressure” is a WWII drama regarding the preparation for D-Day. As part of Operation Overlord, it regarded the invasion of Normandy, which was the largest seaborne invasion in history, and took place on June 6th, 1944. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) in charge the allied forces. And the movie shows us the conflicts between him and the Scottish Meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott). The military stresses and different weather predictions are supposed to set things in motion, and the movie acknowledges that very well.
So as Al Romero would say: “Here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods.”
Stagg is ordered by Eisenhower to supervise a weather team to forecast the weather for D-Day. The question is simple: do they invade or not? And at this point, the answer is hard to say at the moment, as it’s based on the weather. In fact, based on his recent findings, the invasion could be pushed back a week or two.
Chris Messina plays the American meteorologist Irving P. Kirk, who says he wisely predicted the weather for the Alabama fire scene in “Gone with the Wind,” and believes that based on previous weather charts and recent patterns, D-Day will be sunny. Although, Stagg is in denial of him being accurate. In fact, these two are always conflicting with each other about who is in charge.
And Kerry Condon plays Kat Summersby, the Irish aide to Eisenhower, who basically examines his emotions regarding the men he lost a few weeks ago. She also dislikes his behavior towards Stagg, regarding his weather predictions and how his pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski) is in a hospital that may have been bombed. She’s the movie’s voice of reasoning, as far as I’m concerned.
“Pressure” is the first film Anthony Margas has directed since “Hotel Mumbai,” and like that film, there’s a lot of tension with in this historical dramatization to keep movie goers at the edge of their seats. And he co-wrote the script with David Haig, who also based it on his stage play.
Sometimes, the screenplay can be a little tedious, and we know how history plays out, but most of the way through, it speaks with the right convictions. I think with any generation of war movies like “Oppenheimer” and “Crimson Tide,” there’s a lot to think about. They didn’t know how D-Day would plan out back in 1944, and we don’t know how the Iranian War will play out in 2026. It’s all built on tension and keeps us watching and thinking.
Scott delivers his dialogue with consistency and his emotions are grappled on what Stagg was trying to determine back then. And Fraser puts all of his efforts in bringing Eisenhower to life with his voice, built, and bald spot. But mostly his yelling. So, the movie shows their conflicts without overexposing them or trying to promote them to bring people in the theater. They’re not really interested in that, but rather a WWII story that wants to tell it like it was.
When D-Day happens in “Pressure,” we get “Spiegel im Spiegel” playing as the soldiers are preparing for battle. Archival footage and special effects are merged with the actors, and the ambiance really sets the tone of what is about to happen. And with the weather struggling to calm down, you know there are going to be some waves and bounces. All of which is beautifully photographed by Jamie D. Ramsay (“All of Us Strangers,” which also starred Scott).
“Pressure” has plenty of great performances and strong intensities to make it another worthy WWII movie. I guess it’s all within the angles of the war, and there are different angles of it. We see a story on one side, and we see another on another. And in D-Day’s case, it’s all within the 72 hours beforehand.