Since so many countries were involved in World War II, people around the globe have stories of heroes committing acts of selfless gallantry for the greater good. Guy Ritchie’s latest, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is one such film. In this story, a band of mostly British misfit heroes fight against the Axis powers on a mission to disrupt Nazi U-boat supply lines in the early 1940s.
The operation depicted in the film is based on real events detailed in the 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis, as well as files that were declassified in 2016. Originally witnessed by a young man named Ian Fleming (played in the film by Freddie Fox), along with Henry Cavill’s Gu March-Phillips, this mission — requiring expert subterfuge, carefully planned explosions, and lots and lots of knives and guns — became the inspiration for James Bond.
Documenting what could be considered as the first-ever black ops mission in modern history, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare sees Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffen and Babs Olusanmokun each play a character with a particular skill, who form a team and execute a plan to blow up a supply ship and kill a bunch of Nazis in the process. But where the book tells the story of people, Ritchie turns the special forces squad into supercharged superheroes.
Link: https://exclaim.ca/film/article/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-film-review-prime-video
‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Makes Nazi-Bashing Seem Extra Fun | Exclaim!
