written by: Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Arash Amel & Guy Ritchie
produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer, Guy Ritchie, Chad Oman, Ivan Atkinson & John Friedberg
directed by: Guy Ritchie
rated: R (for strong violence throughout and some language)
runtime: 120 min.
U.S. release date: April 19, 2024
Knowing that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is involved in a movie revolving around the Raid on Santorini, which took place in 1944 on April 24th (settle down – I’m not a history buff, I had to Wikipedia it), and that Guy Ritchie directs it, doesn’t quite instill confidence that this will be an accurate depiction of the events that transpired. The fact that “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is an action spy comedy, instead of a tense nail-biter about a historical event you’ve probably never heard of, should foretell what’s to come. You will get what you expect here, and, most likely, curiosity about the actual events increases will be piqued. You’ll likely also wonder why this movie is littered with smirks and nonplussed quick-kill shots.
It’s 1941, and Winston Churchill (a borderline silly and unconvincing Rory Kinnear) is looking to squash German momentum as their run of Europe escalates. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom enlists the assistance of Brigadier Colin McVean “M” Gubbins (Cary Elwes) and his assistant, Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox, son of Edward Fox, who was in the underrated “Force 10 from Navarone”), and the two come up with a secret plan to prevent the use of dangerous German U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean.
They call upon Gus Henry March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), a charismatic Brit (with a penchant for an attractive jacket or coat), to orchestrate Operation Postmaster, a top-secret black-ops sabotage mission intended to disrupt the Nazis’ U-boat resupply system. The mission would require Gus and his crew to sink the Nazi supply ships located at the neutral Spanish-controlled island of Fernando Po. As expected, if they are caught, all involvement with the British government would be denied. Gus takes the challenge as long as he can assemble his crew, which consists of: brawny Danish soldier Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Goulding), SOE saboteur Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), and ship captain Hayes Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), and proceeds to make their way on a fishing boat to the resupply operation off the Cameroon coast.
The crew will receive assistance from the land portion of the operation, which has been assigned to Mr. Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez), two Special Operations Executive (SOE) undercover agents. He is known by the enemy for running a casino near the port, and she is a sharpshooter who acts as a femme fatale and goes on to become a model and actress. Vernon’s job is to keep everyone looking the other way as Gus and his crew arrive and do their thing, while Marjorie’s sole focus is to distract and seduce Nazi leader Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).
With the plans laid out and everyone knowing their roles, the only surprising thing about “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is that there’s only one major hiccup in their mission, and it quickly becomes an easy workaround. When they learn that the Nazis have fortified the targeted vessels, Italian liner Duchessa d’Aosta and the German tug Likomba, in such a way that they are unsinkable, Gus and his crew pivot and decide they will steal the liner rather than sink it. Using the German tug to pull the Italian liner out to sea and hand it over to the British Navy, their mission is completed.
The End.
No, really. That’s it, and it all feels too easy. Back in the days of “The Guns of Navarone” or “The Dirty Dozen,” a rag-tag crew of soldiers and mercenaries (with a requisite explosives expert and femme fatale) faced unsurmountable odds as they pushed forward on their mission. Ritchie loosely takes that mold and adds some “Inglorious Basterds” humor to this tale. Still, since the protagonists we follow here are unharmed throughout and come out unscathed once their mission is completed, that approach is problematic. The stakes are seldom and feel unreal, with the movie emphasizing how smug and smirky the heroes are in supposedly intense situations. With peril limited, viewers will likely wind up leaving theaters with a shrug.
Ritchie co-wrote the screenplay for “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” with Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel, adapting Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis. While the material comes from a place concerned with accuracy and reality, Ritchie has something else in mind. You can sense it in his directing style. Still, it can also be heard in the lively jazz score by British composer Christopher Benstead (a frequent Ritchie collaborator) and the sharp editing by James Herbert, all of which supersede the real-world gravity of the situations these characters find themselves in.
As director, Ritchie is more concerned with a high Nazis body count, which is expected, but it doesn’t take too long for the story to feel quite cartoonish. That’s unfortunate, considering this is an important but seldom-heard mission that changed the war’s course. Maybe there was a fear that the story would be too dull without making it “entertaining.” There is undoubtedly a determination to make sure viewers know the brawn and the beauty that Ritchie has cast. Indeed Cavill and Ritchson lead the beefcake while Rodriguez adds a slice of cheesecake. That’s all fine and makes for some great eye candy. Still, when Ritchie shows archival photos of the actual people that those actors (and everyone else) are portraying during the end credits, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when the visual differences are glaring.
The depiction of Churchill in “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is also a glaring oddity. For some reason, he seems conflicted at this early stage of WWII, voicing frustration over his country’s preference for a complete surrender to Germany. They think such an action will end the war, at least for them. We know from history (and portrayals of Churchill in other movies) that the Prime Minister was a bit of a rebel, often voicing unorthodox positions to those around him. Churchill is a challenging role to pull off since he looms large, but Kinnear’s portrayal is far from assured, coming across as an understudy or a line-reader for the other actors.
That being said, the movie would’ve benefitted from having less of Churchill and more of M & Ian Fleming, especially since many are primarily familiar with Fleming for going on to become the writer that created OO7 agent, James Bond. Supposedly, Fleming came up with the character after working with Gus March-Phillipps. That’s also intriguing, considering Cavill’s name has been mentioned online (for whatever that’s worth) as a candidate to portray the next James Bond. On that note, we don’t get to know much about Gus or anyone on his crew. What were these men doing leading up to this clandestine mission? All that matters in this movie is whether or not they can obliterate anything donning a swastika.
For a men-on-a-mission action flick, “Ungentlemanly Warfare” has much energy. It has so much that it’s almost laughable. Again, don’t look for too much real history here. For example, look at the massive size of Ritchon’s Anders Lassen. There are plenty of scenes where Ritchie follows the giant as he plows through Nazi soldiers in close quarters, often fileting them with a knife after running out of ammo. He’s also amazingly adept at using a bow-and-arrow, whether yards away or a foot from his opponent. This guy cannot be stopped. Ritchson plays him with a loose and fun approach (especially with the character keeping his eyeglasses on throughout), albeit with a curiously vague lean toward homosexuality. Because of his size and portrayal, it’s easy for Ritchson to stand out.
The subplot on land where we follow Heron and Marjorie offers a nice counter to the swath of violence that Gus and his crew are dispensing. It’s a quiet alternative that revolves around deception and stealth communication with those in charge back in England. Still, it is a subplot, and the story of these two SOE agents isn’t out to offer any balance to the movie. It’s obvious what the main focus is from the title, not to mention Ritchie’s focus on all the fantastic chaos that comes with this “Ungentlemanly Warfare.”
Ritchie has been quite prolific in recent years, yet he gets a lot of crap from critics. I hear quite a bit of moaning amid the critic community when there are rumblings of another movie by the English director. His movies have never been awful, but then again, his highest-grossing movie was Disney’s live-action remake “Aladdin” in 2019, and that was pretty bad. But then again, so are most of those unnecessary remakes. However, the following year saw the release of “The Gentlemen,” an action comedy he wrote and directed that was received well and has expanded into a recent Showtime series. Just about every year since Ritchie released a movie, he dropped two once again last year. Many of these movies have been robust offerings, providing a good balance of action, humor, and heart.
You won’t be disappointed if you calibrate your expectations appropriately and remember who’s at the helm here. Ritchie moves his cast around like the action figures they are written to be; indeed, the action is on point. Ultimately, there’s a fascinating true story somewhere in here. If anything, the movie should inspire viewers to do a little research to discover what really happened.
