The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

• Directed, Co-Written and Produced by Guy Ritchie
• April 13, 2024 (NYC) / April 19, 2024 (US) / July 25, 2024 (UK)
• Loosely based on the 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis

During WWII a group of highly skilled soldiers are recruited by the British military to hit the Germans behind enemy lines.

I have absolutely no idea how accurately The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare follows the true story which served as inspiration. A lot of bold and audacious things happened during World War II making for a lot of unbelievable truth out there. Just read how Audie Murphy became a legend to see.

I have some issues here and there with the film. My first is the individual playing Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) is a little difficult to recognize as Winston Churchill initially. If it wasn’t for the cigar that he sports you would honestly not know until he was directly addressed. He gives a fine performance but a little more aging make up and a vocal impression can go a long way.

Eiza González plays a very fictionalized version of the very real Marjorie Stewart. While only a planner and trainer during the war, here she is an active in Operation Postmaster assigned to seduce a Nazi officer at the mission’s target. She is as capable as the other characters being the equal of her target as well as her compatriots. She is paired with Babs Olusanmokun as Richard Heron who runs a club and a series of illegal activities on the Spanish-controlled island of Fernando Po.

High definition reveals a heavy amount of makeup used on González’s face. It’s extremely obvious in the moments when the camera is close up. It is unnaturally heavy and I found it distracting from her otherwise excellent performance matching wits with SS commander Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger). Stewart and Luhr were an interesting dynamic and I would’ve liked to have seen that delved more into.

Luhr is just creepy. Then again Schweiger sounds like a less joyous Werner Herzog. There’s something unsettling about his delivery in the way he talks. It’s very controlled. You know he is tightly wound and holding some really messed up secrets.

This occurred distinctly (for the most part) from the storyline of the commandos. Perhaps separately each would be about an hour since this is two hours long but the information and discoveries on the island could easily have been covered with a line or two. Both are good but together it feels like a stretched out one movie straight combined two short short films into one long movie.

I know in real life they married, but I’m not sure how there were any feelings between commando leader Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and Stewart. Their meeting was maybe two minutes on screen and it wasn’t anything that screamed “They have the hots for each other.” I would even say it was a bit standoffish. In the close of the mission though they exchange smiles like “You want me.”

In his delivery Cavill’s upper class life certainly comes through. He’s very proper British if you catch my meaning as an American. It lacks a quality of roughness. If we the viewer had some better understanding of March-Phillipps it might help with taking Cavill as a dirty fighter.

There is a distinct difference tone of the film when Ritchie is focusing on the commandos. It’s almost war as an adventure rather than war as something serious and unwanted. These are moments that contain dark humor or just general humor with that cast all but high-fiving each other when something happens. The characters can come off as nearly crazy and if it were not for there being a war ending up in prison.

Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen contributes to the feeling of madness. Lassen is a gleeful killer. He maintains a casual almost happy feel about every time he kills. It’s not simply business, but it’s a time to party. Ritchson-as-Lassen needed to be in more of the movie but then again so did ALL the commandos.

There is a contingent in the film of military officers against Operation Postmaster to the point of trying to stop it. They are looking for a peace with Germany to end a war they feel is unwinnable. Something about it just doesn’t fit with the overall story and maybe it was a late addition to the script/completely fictional bit added for drama.

Because of feeling like two different movies that converge at the same point The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is missing an even tone and just a little something more. As a presentation it certainly is stylized but doesn’t have that same quirky character vibe of a Guy Ritchie film. The action is over the top with moments of a heist feel.

I can’t say I hated The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. I could see watching it again but it’s missing that little something that would’ve made it great. It has all the parts to make it great other than that undefined magic. Not Ritchie’s worst but certainly not his best.