Synopsis
Based upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and inspired by true events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming. The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques. Ultimately their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare.
What We Thought:
I wanted to enjoy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Overall I like Guy Ritchie films and Henry Cavill’s best film is The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which Ritchie directed. Seeing them team up again seemed like a good idea especially since the tone of the trailers seemed fun like U.N.C.L.E. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of historical revisionism through today’s eyes and this film seems like they took a lot of liberties from a true story to make it more commercially available for today’s audiences. I hate when they do that especially when the story is so utterly ridiculous in real life that there’s no need to change anything about it.
The movie is based in the early 1940s before the U.S. got fully involved in World War II. German U-boats had a lockdown on the Atlantic cutting off needed supplies for England and the Allies. With approval from Winston Churchill himself, a ragtag group is put together to sink an important German boat which would hopefully hurt the U-boat armada. The mission helped spark the creation of special ops groups like the British SAS, the US Navy SEALs, etc. As a history and military buff, I’m 100% down for all this, but again you can tell they changed things from the historical aspect for the film narrative.
There are things I did like about the film so I’ll discuss those first. The score was fantastic especially a party scene with jazz playing in the background that could rival the house party in Babylon tonally. Ritchie has always used music well in his movies and this is no different. Cavill is solid in it. He’s grown on me as an actor and his charm and wit are in full display here. He may not be as built as he was in Superman, but he still very much looks the role of a military man who may get himself into trouble from time to time. He’s funny and you understand why he’d be the leader of this rogue bunch. It’s also believed that the real life man Cavill is playing is who Ian Fleming used for the basis of James Bond. Fleming himself is a character in this film. Ritchie does a good job cutting back and forth between the group of mavericks on the boat and the men behind the scenes with Churchill. The group gets to be the comedic relief for most of the film, but with actors like Cary Elwes working next to Churchill, the military and political brass side get laughs as well.
My biggest issue is that I just don’t believe some of the character portrayals. Alan Ritchson’s character seems to be hinted at as gay and yes there would be gay men in the 1940s, but they wouldn’t be openly gay during World War II. Eiza González is beautiful, sings and speaks multiple languages in real life, but looks nothing like the real life woman she’s portraying. Til Schweiger’s character comes across as a cinematic Nazi leader. He’s very straight forward and seems like a caricature of a Nazi based on what we’ve seen in movies. All of that and more comes across as how we see these people in the 21st century and not realistically how they would be in the 1940s.
After last year’s criminally underrated The Covenant, I was hoping Guy Ritchie was back to making surprise gems. I was hoping for something like The Dirty Dozen or The Great Escape instead The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is more Inglorious Basterds which I’m not a fan of. Others around me liked it much more than I did, but I can’t see myself watching it again any time soon which is a shame.
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Screenplay by Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson and Arash Amel and Guy Ritchie
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, p.g.a., Guy Ritchie, p.g.a., Chad Oman, p.g.a., Ivan Atkinson, John Friedberg
Starring Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusamokun, Henrique Zaga, Til Schweiger, Henry Golding and Cary Elwes
The Nerds Templar 