{"id":1173,"date":"2026-07-26T07:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:40:25","slug":"movie-review-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Courage, said Ernest Hemingway, is \u201cgrace under pressure\u201d\u2014which is also a good description of the quality that people once most valued in a leader. It\u2019s clearly present, for example, in Shakespeare\u2019s description of Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt:<\/p>\n

Read more Odysseus Visits the Smithsonian<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Upon his royal face there is no note<\/p>\n

How dread an army hath enrounded him,<\/p>\n

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of color<\/p>\n

To the weary and all-watch\u00e8d night,<\/p>\n

But freshly looks and overbears attaint<\/p>\n

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty,<\/p>\n

That every wretch, pining and pale before,<\/p>\n

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In our own time, a standout example of grace under pressure is the image of Donald Trump, his face still bloody from the bullet that, seconds before, had come less than an inch from taking his head off, struggling through his protective circle of Secret Service agents to urge the potentially panicked crowd to \u201cFight, fight, fight.\u201d Not that this impressed many of those who profess to value empathy more than courage in a leader.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, there is a lot of pressure in a movie called Pressure<\/em>\u2014both the high-pressure decision-making of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) about when to launch the D-Day invasion of Europe in June 1944 and the approaching low-pressure weather system that threatens to scupper that invasion. But of grace, there is somewhat less.<\/p>\n

Not that this quality is completely absent. The picture\u2019s prime example of grace under pressure is Group Captain (the rank equivalent of an American colonel) James Stagg (Andrew Scott) of the Royal Air Force\u2019s weather service, who is said to have been recommended to Eisenhower by Churchill only days before (it was actually months before) as the best meteorologist to predict the D-Day weather and thus to make the final determination as to when the invasion could happen.<\/p>\n

The pressure on Group Captain Stagg from Eisenhower and his generals, as well as from his American counterpart, Col. Irving Krick (Chris Messina), with whom he profoundly disagrees, to say that the invasion is good to go on June 5 is well-nigh irresistible. And yet he resists it\u2014with the result that D-Day is postponed until June 6\u2014and succeeds instead of failing.<\/p>\n

It really is an inspiring tale, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making Stagg look like the hero of D-Day, not Eisenhower, who comes off looking more like a bully than a courageous leader of men. As Peter Campbell has written for Law & Liberty<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

The Ike of Pressure<\/em> is a blustery worrywart who always seems to be on the verge of pummeling his subordinates. A leadership style that relied solely on intimidating subordinates was almost the antithesis of [the real] Ike\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Read more Meet Britain\u2019s New Cabinet of Fakers, Fraudsters and Hangers-On<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The personal drama of Group Captain Stagg\u2019s standing up to his bullying superiors; his feud with Col. Krick, later resolved with an act of generosity on his part in seeking the other\u2019s counsel; and keeping his mind on his business even when his pregnant wife is said to be in a bombed hospital, her fate unknown\u2014all this presumably takes center stage in the film because the world-historical drama of D-Day itself, just offstage apart from a brief montage that takes up about 10 of the picture\u2019s 100 minutes, is to a contemporary audience too overwhelming, even too unreal by comparison.<\/p>\n

Movie audiences today want something on a more human scale, where individual emotion is given more importance than it can be allowed in the gigantic clash of armies and nations. We who are citizens of what Jonathan Alpert calls Therapy Nation<\/em> admire emotional expressiveness and not emotional stolidity. It may be different in the armed services \u2014 I certainly hope it is \u2014 but not in Hollywood, nor in the movies Hollywood makes about the armed services.<\/p>\n

For it was once an essential part of an officer\u2019s training in the U.S. Army\u2014perhaps it still is\u2014never to show fear in the face of the enemy, as enlisted men inevitably pick up on it and see it as a justification of their own fears. But in Pressure\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0montage of combat, mentioned above, all the actors playing soldiers waiting to go ashore in Normandy have apparently been told to put on the appearance of being frightened out of their wits. This is what, apparently, people want to see in the sensitive movie heroes of today, not the insouciant courage of a Henry V. I\u2019m certainly not the first to observe that nowadays, we admire victims more than we do victors.<\/p>\n

In short, we no longer honor and admire courage so much as we do intelligence<\/em>, which is one reason why Pressure<\/em>\u00a0wants to make a weatherman\u2014a scientist, or what the Brits call a boffin\u2014the real hero of D-Day. Another is that Henrican grace under pressure on the part of military brass hats doesn\u2019t look authentic to movie audiences today. We don\u2019t want to see Hollywood\u2019s leading men sporting a \u201ccheerful semblance and sweet majesty.\u201d We want to see them emoting<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nothing wrong with that, you may say, and Pressure<\/em>\u00a0does the limited thing it set out to do pretty well. All the same, I can\u2019t help thinking that we\u2019re missing something we can\u2019t very well do without in this tough old world.<\/p>\n

Read more Los Angeles\u2019 School District Went From Morally to Financially Bankrupt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courage, said Ernest Hemingway, is \u201cgrace under pressure\u201d\u2014which is also a good description of the quality that people once most valued in a leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Courage, said Ernest Hemingway, is \u201cgrace under pressure\u201d\u2014which is also a good description of the quality that people once most valued in a leader.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Urban Economy news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\"},\"headline\":\"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173\"},\"wordCount\":922,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Movies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173\",\"name\":\"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=1173#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Urban Economy news\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news","og_description":"Courage, said Ernest Hemingway, is \u201cgrace under pressure\u201d\u2014which is also a good description of the quality that people once most valued in a leader.","og_url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173","og_site_name":"Urban Economy news","article_published_time":"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad"},"headline":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019","datePublished":"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173"},"wordCount":922,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg","articleSection":["Movies"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173","name":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019 - Urban Economy news","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-26T07:40:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6f6e94742540d9e86e64f7cd35097ca0.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1173#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Movie Review: \u2018Pressure\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/","name":"Urban Economy news","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}