Pressure (2026)

Plot of Pressure: In the days before the projected invasion of the beaches of Normandy by allied forces Group Captain James Stagg the head of the British meteorological service joins the assembled military organisers in a country house in the south of England. By that time a rehearsal on beaches in Devon has gone badly wrong with multiple deaths among the troops involved. Stagg puts a stop to the light-hearted approach seemingly taken by the met team in the house and sets up some serious information gathering, despite the view of the American meteorologist who thinks that history will repeat itself. It comes to decision making time for General Eisenhower, will the invasion take place on 5 June or not. Stagg advises against, but to delay may make the whole plan visible to the German intelligence services, since the fake collections of military hardware elsewhere in the south of England are fragile. Eisenhower accepts the advice and the invasion is delayed by one day.

Content: No sex or nudity. Loads of smoking. Everybody smoked a lot during the war and after. The activity was not seen as being harmful to health. Some drinking but no-one is drunk. Stagg’s wife is very pregnant and is taken away to hospital as he goes to work. The hospital she is taken to is bombed. The met guys collect data and make maps. The generals meet with the meteorologists and argue about next action. Maps of weather systems are developed, although we rely on Stagg’s interpretation of them. Various important wartime characters are present, including Montgomery and Air Marshall Leigh-Mallory.

A View: Although this film has been well received it does not seem to have made any money. I usually enjoy films made of plays. I like the fact that the scenes are constructed using words rather than pictures and this outing has been no exception, but I realise they are not everybody’s cup of tea. I could name a few films which fit into the category starting with the wonderful ‘Suddenly Last Summer’. So there we are, apparently great efforts were made to achieve authenticity, hence a film for those who have a particular interest in the world wars.

Fun Fact: The actual weather pattern which allowed the invasion to take place on 6 June was identified by a Norwegian, Sverre Petterssen. The Norwegians are up in arms!