The UK's chief meteorological officer is charged with forecasting the weather for the D-Day landings.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Anthony Maras
Starring: Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Damian Lewis, Chris Messina
If your knowledge of WWII is derived solely from American and British cinema, you might believe that the conflict was resolved exclusively by the contributions of Brits and Americans. Adapted from David Haig's stage play of the same name, director Anthony Maras's Pressure is the latest Anglophilic war movie to erase the contribution of a key figure who didn't happen to be either American or British. The film concerns the race to predict the weather conditions for the proposed D-Day landings. In reality it was Norwegian meteorologist Sverre Petterssen who accurately forecasted that the conditions on June 5th would be unsuitable for a mass landing of troops on the beaches at Normandy, but Petterssen has been completely excised from this version of history.
Instead the character of Pettersen has been subsumed into the film's Scottish protagonist, RAF Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott). As the UK's top meteorologist, Stagg is given the stressful task of heading a team of weather boffins and presenting General Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) with a yes or no answer regarding whether the operation can go ahead on its proposed date of Monday, June 5th, 1944. He has only two days to do so.
This puts Stagg at odds with his American opposite, USAAF Colonel Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina). Relying on historical charts, along with looking out the window at the pleasant weather over the weekend, Krick is convinced that conditions will be perfect come Monday. There is also a great sense that Krick would rather give Eisenhower the answer he wants rather than the answer he needs. Stagg, on the other hand, is concerned solely with getting it right, and he is almost certain that a storm is coming.
I'm a movie reviewer, not a war historian, so ultimately my task is to evaluate Pressure as a piece of drama, not a representation of history. As a piece of drama it most certainly works. The historical inaccuracies and omissions are largely in service of enhancing the drama, like giving Stagg just a couple of days to make his prediction rather than the weeks he was really afforded. Several teams were involved in the real life task, but reducing their efforts to an argument between two men simply makes for a more streamlined conflict.
The film plays up something of a cultural clash between the stoic Scottish Stagg and the brashly confident American Krick, and while the two men are crudely reduced to stereotypes, Scott and Messina bring out the humanity in both characters. Casting two vertically challenged actors in the roles gives the impression of two schoolboys teamed up for a class project who are terrified of giving their teacher the wrong answer. That Eisenhower is played by the towering Fraser only adds to this idea. But while Krick wants to keep his teacher happy, Stagg is concerned solely with giving the right answer, regardless of how it makes him look.
Fraser similarly adds depth to a totemic figure, and as Ike's personal aide and rumoured lover Kay Summersby, Kerry Condon gives the movie much of its heart. Summersby is the one woman among these bickering men, and while she tries to have her say, the movie thankfully avoids modernising this scenario. We're always aware that while Kay might have the ear of one of the world's most powerful men, it's still 1944, and Eisenhower doesn't feel obliged to listen to the advice of a woman.
Though set in the first half of the last century, Pressure's central conflict plays all too familiar in today's world, where scientists are still expected to give men in power the answers they want to hear rather than the brutal truth. As Stagg and Krick argue over the weather, we could be watching a modern day politician and a scientist debate climate change. The key difference is that in 1944 the powers that be were ultimately willing to listen to the experts.
Pressure is in UK/ROI cinemas from September 9th.
