The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

The period following the Oscars ceremony is usually slow.  It used to be when the studios would take out their trash, releasing films that were not up to standard, although that is increasingly not the case anymore.  That being said, we are not going to be talking about any of the films that have been released in the last few months during the weeks preceding the announcement of next year’s nominations. 

It also seems like Hollywood has fallen into the habit of only releasing one film that promises to make some money per week.  And if that film doesn’t interest me, I will find other things to do on Saturday night.  There hasn’t been much of interest lately.  

Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare does interest me.  It’s based on the true story of the origins of the British Special Operations Executive, or SOE.  How closely it adheres to history is probably up for debate.  The movie’s main source is a book by Damien Lewis Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII, which was written after the history of this organization was recently declassified. 

The setting is 1941.  German U-boats are routinely sinking American supply ships and the Nazis are overrunning Europe.  Things look grim for the Brits.  Churchill’s (Rory Kinnear) top military advisors are telling him to negotiate a surrender to Hitler, but of course, he knows that is not an option.  So, he gives Colin Gubbins (Cary Elwes) and his aide Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox)—yes, that Ian Fleming—the task of coming up with a plan to cut off supplies to the German U-boats.  Gubbins and Fleming know regular soldiers are not going to be up to the task.  They need people who know how to fight dirty; men who are not gentlemen. 

They turn to Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavil) who’s available because he’s in jail and he puts together a team of questionable characters to sail down to the Spanish controlled island of Fernando Po to stop a large shipment of vital U-boat supplies.  His team includes Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) a violent Swede with a grudge against the Nazis, and Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), a brilliant tactician.  There is the usual variety of skills on the team, familiar from hundreds of heist and men-on-a-mission movies.  There’s a munitions guy and a guy who can handle boats.

This material, in different hands, could have been made into an epic, given its historical origins.  But Guy Ritchie is known for making comic crime movies with eccentric characters and that’s the approach here.  There isn’t much surprising about the film.  Also, it is light on characterization.  But the acting is sufficient, and the action is spectacular. 

It winds up being a lot of fun.  In the end it is about blowing things up and the indiscriminate slaughter of Nazis.  Just what the world needs right now.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is playing in theaters.