Pop pomp pompadour Freddie Mercury and heterochromia harmonist David Bowie were only too keen to tell us that they were Under Pressure but whatever they felt pushing down on then was as nothing compared to the pressure that James Stagg (played here by Andrew Scott) and in turn Dwight Eisenhower felt. Stagg was highly regarded by Churchill when it came to meteorlogical based decisions regarding military operations and here he has to advise on the weather forecasts a matter of days before the Normandy landings are launched by the allies. 80 years ago forecast had been made by little more than sending up balloons to take readings and frankly weather forecast don’t seem to have developed much more beyond putting your hand out of the window.
But opinions were divided when Ike’s man, Irving Krick (Chris Messina) whose own predictions were based on decades old historical weather readings from an entirely different part of the world. It’s like comparing former Sky news hack and covid lockdown rule breaker Kay Burley with multi award winning politician interrogator in chief Jeremy Paxman.
Both Stagg and Krick’s view as to when the weather would be fine were diametrically opposite. They are all under pressure and Stagg increasingly so having been isolated from his pregnant wife unable to contact her but hears that she might be in grave danger just as he is about to make a final calculation that if wrong would have cataclysmic consequences for what was to be the Allies largest military operation. The outcome is well known (and the landings when they do happen pale in comparison with the opening of ‘Saving Private Ryan’) but this is all about the quandary that Stagg and in turn Eisenhower were if the calculations were wrong. Those consequences are clear in the opening scene where the disastrous Operation Tiger are shown – a covert D-Day rehearsal that saw hundreds of US military killed and is worthy of a film in itself.
Scott, Messina and Fraser make a terrific trio with Scott edging it as level headed and softly spoken but with a steely will that often alienates him from his colleagues. He remains one of our finest actors (we still don’t understand how he didn’t get plaudits for ‘All of us strangers’).
That there is a weather channel has always amazed us and having only watched it when we’ve had trouble sleeping a film like Pressure would surely have the same effect. Though it is based on a stage play it doesn’t always escape its theatrical origins but nonetheless Pressure is utterly engrossing.
related feature : We take a look at Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ – PRIME VIDEO
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Here’s the trailer……
