'' PRESSURE '' : FILM HONOURS SNIPPET

CINEMASCOPE : THE WEATHER ON D-DAY. PRESSURE is a gripping account of the meteorologists whose forecasts helped shape D-Day, though the film sometimes lets Hollywood take over.

Like several other historically focused productions, Pressure overplays the extent to which it is delivering an ''untold''. story.

After all, it is based on a successful play, while the contributions of Stagg to pre D-Day planning also received attention in both The Longest Day [1962] and, more recently. IKE : Countdown to D-Day [2004].

Stagg himself also authored a 1971 account of his D-Day role. The story of D-Day's meteorologists might not be widely known, but that's not the same as saying it is ''untold''.

There are also some problems with Fraser's portrayal of Eisenhower. He successfully captures Ik's famously short temper, as well as the extent to which he almost drove himself to breaking point in the days before the invasion.

We're also given a tantalising glimpse of his close and complicated relationship with Kay Summersby, his indispensable driver, assistant and confidant [brilliantly played by Kerry Condon].

But we see relatively little of those other qualities which made Eisenhower so well-suited to the job he'd been given.

He was an instinctive diplomat., who successfully managed a transatlantic command team that included a good quota of egos and prima donnas.

Unfortunately, though, this does not really come through, and we're often left with the sense that he brought to the role little more than a capacity to glare, shout, smoke and drink.

Pressure is an engaging film that shines a welcome light on an important aspect of the Allied landings.

!WOW! thanks Sam Edwards, a Reader in Modern Political History at Loughborough University, UK.