'Pressure' Tells the Heroic Tale of a World War II ... Meteorologist?

Capt. James Stagg delivers weather news people do not want to hear, questioning why rain and wind should be considered boring. The story centers on meteorology’s role in saving D-Day by determining when to land on Normandy’s beaches. The film follows two competing men: Stagg, portrayed as introspective, stubborn, and sour, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, portrayed as physically imposing and stubborn in a louder manner. The narrative is grounded in a play and uses speeches and dialogue to build tension. It opens with dead soldiers on a seashore, referencing the disastrous Exercise Tiger rehearsal that killed hundreds of American servicemen.

"People often talk about whether it's raining, his character, Capt. James Stagg, argues at one point in Pressure, the story of how meteorology saved D-Day. But do they consider WHY it's raining? Or, what actually makes it windy? And how, he asks, can that be boring?"

"The film pits two men against each other: Scott's introspective, stubborn, even sour meteorologist, and none other than Dwight D. Eisenhower, celebrated general and future president, played by Brendan Fraser. Fraser's Eisenhower is physically imposing - much more than the real man - and stubborn too, though in a louder way. But he's frankly less interesting than Scott's multifaceted Stagg, a character and performance that elevates an otherwise efficient, well-made war movie into something more intriguing."

"There are times when Pressure, directed and co-written by Anthony Maras, feels like a series of similarly elegant speeches. That makes some sense, since it's based on a play - the 2014 drama by David Haig. Telling the relatively little-known story of how forecasters made the crucial call of when to land on Normandy's beaches, the film pits two men against each other."

"The film begins with soldiers lying dead on a seashore, near bloody waters - a reminder of the catastrophic rehearsal for D-Day called Exercise Tiger, which resulted in hundreds of deaths of American servicemen. It's a way for Maras to remind us not only"

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