The cinematic ‘Dad Movie’ canon just had an all-new instant classic added to the collection; father’s all around the world might drift off whilst Anthony Maras’ Pressure plays, but it certainly won’t be for the movie’s lack of trying. For what could easily have been a plug-and-play WWII drama that did nothing more than recount the facts, Pressure actually ends up as a quite thrilling, and even more so moving, beautifully-dressed portrait of the 72 hours that decided the fate of the world. And with two supremely controlled and seasoned performances at its centre — which are supported by an always brilliant Kerry Condon and an all-time ‘that guy’ collection of actors — it’s clear that, on this occasion, the Pressure has made a diamond.
Anthony Maras has managed to do, with only his second feature film, what very few others have: Add something meaningful to an already incredibly defined canon. The Second World War might just be the time period in our history most consistently adapted for the screen: Schindler’s List, Oppenheimer, The King’s Speech, The Zone of Interest, I could go on and on (and I did, here). But none more so than D-Day; the allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, that would turn the tide in the battle for the world in favour of The Allies. Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, Band of Brothers; all movies/shows that depict the events of said invasion — and all iconic or quality enough to justify their place in this collection. And so the idea of attempting to claim your place next to these titans of WWII-adapted dramatisations is an audacious one, and yet, the mad bastard done pulled it off.
Pressure sets itself apart from the great number of recent, less impressive, typically straight-to-streaming WWII docudrama’s in three ways: 1) actually releasing in theatre’s, 2) simply coming with a superior level of technical craft, and 3) finding a unique ‘in’. The ‘in’ here in question being, believe it or not, the weather. As though D-Day is now remembered as one of the great Allied triumphs of this tumultuous period, a seed of doubt was cast over its feasibility just hours before soldiers were set to be let loose on the beaches of Normandy by one James Stagg, portrayed here by Andrew Scott.
Stagg would accept a role as Chief Meteorological adviser to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, embodied by Brendan Fraser in the film, who was helming the plans and subsequent execution of the D-Day invasion. And after arriving at Southwick House, Hampshire, England, Stagg’s subsequent workings out would see him reach one unfortunate conclusion: D-Day was needing to be postponed due to a storm that was brewing. And after much back and forth between Stagg, the leader of the American meteorological unit, Irving Krick, played by Chris Messina in the movie, and a contingent of angry, powerful men who weren’t hearing the words they were hoping for, Eisenhower finally agreed to postpone, until a gap opened…
This gap represented an opportunity for D-Day to go ahead just a short one day after its initial planned date, rather than the predicted two-week delay, and offered an opportunity to stun The Axis powers into a loss. And so the story goes: D-Day was a success, The Allies would push further into Western Europe until Hitler was boxed in, and the war, in Europe at least, finally came to its conclusion.
But despite knowing all of this going into Pressure, its biggest success is that none of it matters whatsoever. You know the result, sure, but the film remains as thrilling, anxiety-inducing and entertaining as one would hope, never for a second letting up. And when adding the tear-jerking human layer of Stagg’s personal story to the mix, the result is a movie that is much more touching than it had any right to be. And with a director behind the camera whose hand is as steady as Maras’ is here, Pressure gets the job done like very few of its contemporaries. It knows exactly what it is: a better-dressed-than-most version of this specific kind of ‘dad movie’, and even knows when to end; hardly making an effort to depict the beach storming’s themselves — with what they do go for actually being incredibly well-shot and even very tastefully directed — working wonderfully as a companion piece to those that do centre more so on Normandy.
