No matter what historical period filmmakers of the modern seek to return to, they will always somehow be saying something about now, far more than they ever say something about then. Nowhere is this clearer than in Pressure, the latest feature from Anthony Maras that documents the meteorologists responsible for the success of D-Day.
Sexy Scottish Meteorologists aside, the film cannot help but discuss how truth talks to power. It is the conservative Platonic ideal of a film – a man with knowledge and data is heeded and respected in the end, despite the grave odds, despite having an unpopular opinion. Stoicism and Utilitarianism win in the end, above all. These are the themes most exciting to the dads and grandads this film was built for – a time that we're all sure existed, where sense, however unpopular, was the victor.
It's not hard to see why a film like this will resonate, and who with – as many critics have already said, Pressure doesn't seek to reinvent the wheel. It has found an overlooked corner of history and expanded it into an allegory, nay, the allegory of our time. Perhaps this is why I had so little against it – aside from being a film wholly uninterested in romanticising war, which is always welcome, it was cautious and calm in keeping to its topic and scope. A lesser film would have bled into corners of history that didn't need to be explored, with figures and conversations that were wholly irrelevant to the point.
Instead, we get a luscious few hours of Andrew Scott at peak form, in frames like paintings, being the stoic and practical statistician in a proverbial storm of uncertainty, pun intended. Again, what a cushion to fall on in our chaotic times – perhaps a soporific one – if we just follow the data, all will be right in the end. War, uncertainty, death – all these things are solved with rational action.
If only life were as black & white as a Working Title film.
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