The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, 2024.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.
Starring Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Cary Elwes, Til Schweiger, Henry Zaga, Roger Snipes, Danny Sapani, Freddie Fox, Olaf Kayhan, Mert Dincer, Ethel von Brixham, Fisher Stevens, Carlos Bardem, James Wilby, Matthew Hawksley, Matthew Hawksley, Mark Oosterveen, Victor Oshin, Alessandro Babalola, Orshuff Emmanuel Mele, George Asprey, Luca Marrocco, Bikiya Graham Douglas, Nikolas Salmon, and Rory Kinnear.
SYNOPSIS:
The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.
Based on declassified documents and Damien Lewis’s book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops, director Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare follows a group of killers handpicked for a clandestine off-the-record mission overseen by Winston Churchill to infiltrate Spanish island Fernando Po, a neutral territory during World War II, where Nazis were running supplies to refuel a Nazi U-boat terrorizing much of the European forces and making it near impossible for them to retaliate on the ground.
Admittedly, it’s a tantalizing story lost to history until roughly eight years ago. Undeniably, it has the potential to be pulpy, bloody, and fun, especially in the hands of Guy Ritchie. Whether it’s a direct cause of the filmmaker seemingly rushing his way through one project to the next, an overcrowded screenplay (courtesy of himself, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel), studio interference (jarringly, the ensuing violence often feels as if we are watching an R-rated and PG-13 cut smashed into one, even as the film is officially rated R), an ensemble with some weak links (Henry Cavill makes for a dull lead), or some combination of the above, the movie never finds that sweet spot of historical intrigue and unhinged chaos. The film almost tricks you into thinking it’s never boring because the concept and history behind it are so strong.
Leading the team is Henry Cavill’s Gus March-Phillips (who apparently became the framework for Ian Fleming’s James Bond character, another name helping run the mission), a supposedly bad man (it’s never really explained why, avoiding any sense of complexity that might make these him more interesting) told to put together a unit fit to blow up that U-boat. He brings along some savage men who mostly have grudges against Nazis (a commonality between them is having lost a brother to them), ranging from Danish hunter and bruiser Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), expert sailor Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), and a strategical, vicious helping hand in Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) who must be rescued from a German garrison with Gus insisting that the job is impossible to pull off without him.
Following this exposition and initial setup (Rory Kinnear also pops up as Winston Churchill, with Freddie Fox portraying Ian Fleming), the screenplay doesn’t attempt to do much with any of these characters, falling into the trap of leaving them defined by their unique skill. There is banter between them, with Gus trying to show off a casual coolness and swagger, but hardly any of it is actually amusing or noteworthy. It also doesn’t help that they spend most of the film sailing to the destination for the climactic siege. Not only are they mostly forgettable presences, but they also don’t get much to do.
Far more interesting and upstaging that group are a pair of undercover operatives brought aboard for the mission and already stationed in Fernando Po. Babs Olusanmokun’s Heron runs a casino there, fully intending it and an extravagant party to distract the soldiers while the heroes attempt to blow up the U-boat. Meanwhile, actress Marjorie Stewart (a terrific Eiza González) is tasked with seducing a ruthless Nazi of notable power, Til Schweiger’s Heinrich Luhr. It is meant to be yet another distraction, except the two end up caught in a game of trying to outsmart one another intellectually, with Marjorie simultaneously trying to hide her Jewish identity. This all leads to a moment cleverly using subtitles stylishly for something unexpected. More to the point, it’s the sharp and slick character games the film desperately could have used more of to save it from its basicness. A case could also be made that a better film would entirely focus on these dynamics.
The action is also a letdown, promising something gratuitously violent in the opening moments, only for every subsequent killing sequence to inexplicably be mostly bloodless. There’s a point where one character slices through hoards of Nazis, followed up by one of the other teammates quipping “I hope that’s not your blood”, except there isn’t much visible blood covering him (or perhaps it’s just difficult to see in the dark.) It’s not just a matter of not making good on that brutality, though, as the action sequences themselves are rather boring, really leaning into the aspect of five guys mowing down Nazis with turret guns and anything they can get their hands on. There is no urgency or danger for these characters, and even after a middle act of more setup, the payoff isn’t all that eventful and rousing.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare might be the closest Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill each come to making a James Bond film, which might be for the best.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
