“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”, Guy Ritchie’s New Action Flick
The film had a limited theater release back in April.
Summary
A top secret combat unit, composed by individuals of dubious reputation, are sent on a dangerous mission against the Nazis during World War II. The team will have to resort to “ungentlemanly” techniques to complete an operation that could change the course of the war, without dying in the process.
Operation Postmaster: The Story Behind the Film
Operation Postmaster was a British special operation that took place on the Spanish island of Fernando Po during the Second World War. Unlike the film, where the team comes together specifically for the raid, in real life they were already in operation as the No. 62 Commando Unit, also called the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF).
The British Commandos were created on orders from Winston Churchill in June 1940, shortly after the Dunkirk evacuation. Around the same time, Churchill also ordered the consolidation of three existing clandestine services into the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The SOE members were in charge of secretly handling sabotage, reconnaissance, and espionage across Europe. The No. 62 Commandos, formed by March-Phillips, was designed to carry out classified SOE operations.
While in the film the objective of the operation was to sink the Duchessa, in real life the SSRF always meant to board Italian and German ships in the harbor and sail them to Lagos.
The British authorities in the area initially refused to support the raid, which they considered a breach of Spanish neutrality. Permission for the operation to go ahead eventually came from the Foreign Office in London. On January 1942, while the ships’ officers were attending a party arranged by an SOE agent, the commandos entered the port aboard two tugs, overpowered the ships’ crews and sailed off with the ships. While all this happens in the film, the bloody and violent scenes are completely fictional.
Action, Comedy, and Good Performances
The film follows two storylines that merge into one when the time for actions comes.
On one side of the operation you have Gus March-Philips and his team, and on the other Marjorie Stewart and Richard Heron. The film goes back and forth between both sides, but as the rhythm doesn’t work that well, it ends up giving a feeling of disconnection. It’s like watching two different movies.
The team of men carrying out a dangerous rescue mission, and then taking a risky route to arrive to their destiny in time, is honestly way more interesting than Marjorie seducing a SS commander. So that part of the mission becomes kind of boring after a while.
Even though it is based on an historical event, the film focus is on the action, so the characters don’t have a lot of depth. However, all the actors are giving their best, and it shows. Henry Cavill and Allan Ritchson are the ones in the cast who stand out the most, but all the performances are very good.
The surprise for me was Eiza Gonzalez. More than ten years ago, she was the protagonist of a teenage soap-opera I used to watch, and I hadn’t come across her ever since. She got far! As I mentioned, most of Marjorie scenes are not the most exciting of the film, but she did a great job with the script she was given.
The action scenes are violent, but also fun, and I’m sure, very historically inaccurate. I’m fond of films set during the war, not only because it’s an interesting time period, but because I enjoy the more visual aspects of these projects, such as the fashion and production design. This film in particular has nothing mind-blowing to offer in that department, but I find it visually pleasant enough.
Reception
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare did not have a wide theater release. Lionsgate acquired the distribution rights for the U.S., but internationally the rights went to Amazon Prime Video. After a few weeks on theaters, during which it raised $26.000.000, the film ended up on streaming. In my country, it didn’t even get to theaters.
The main criticism I’ve read about it online is that it does not live up to Guy Ritchie’s previous movies. I’m not a fan of the director, so I don’t have a strong opinion on this. The only project of his I clearly remember watching is The Man From U.N.C.L.E, which I don’t have a high opinion of.
Overall, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a good film. Maybe it’s not all that memorable, but it is definitely a fun watch for the ones who enjoy the genre.
