Pressure – Review

Based on a stage play and a true story, Pressure is a dialogue heavy romp through an interesting perspective on D-Day during World War II. Who knew what elements would be so important in planning the invasion of France’s Normandy beach. As ‘Exercise Tiger,’ a full-scale live ammunition rehearsal, reflects absolute disaster, the strategizing military generals re-think what else to consider. Tiger failed due to friendly fire from live rounds, miscommunications of orders, and overall sloppy coordination. Many soldiers died.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, or Ike (Fraser), realizes how screwed the plan is despite wanting the men battle hardened by the experience. Six weeks later, and just 72 hours until the invasion, Scottish Group Captain, as well as Chief Meteorologist Officer, James Stagg (Scott) cooks his pregnant wife Liz (Topolski) breakfast on his last potential normal morning for a while. He has been selected due to his weather monitoring and predicting abilities.

So beings a cloudy drama about terrestrial magnetism, cumulonimbus endeavors, historical analog charts and tense arguing over meteorological intelligence. As the Allied forces team up to plan out the best possible invasion of Germany controlled territory, there is much to debate. As the ticking clock until the invasions slims, tensions ramp up in the briefing room as potential vision impacting weather patterns could ruin the day. But, will top dog Ike Eisenhower trust in what he says?

The event would require 7,000 naval vessels, 130,000 ground troops, 200,000 naval personnel, 15 hospital ships, 8,000 doctors, and three airborne divisions to follow their plans. This was the largest seaborne invasion force in history, and the attack was planned for Monday, June 5^th. The fate of the war would hinge on this. What happens next? Only history, or Pressure, will tell.

If you can handle a talking pace and enjoy slower and thoughtful dramas, Pressure is meticulously planned and presented to deliver an interesting piece on how many puzzle pieces there are in army strategy, especially when it comes to large-scale endeavors such as a ground troop invasion from sea. Throw in technology from the 1940s, and humans did their best to deal with so many unreliable factors.

This is more of an actor’s showcase, and the cast delivers on that note. Everyone top to bottom does a good job and some great people get to deliver some decent lines. The script does move slowly as there isn’t any traditional war battlefield suspense, but some tensions remain as it becomes clear how important it will be to choose the right invasion conditions.

Pressure is a solid military type drama with great actors, and as long as you dig pensive and talkative war films without nonstop bullets and explosions, you will be good here.