During World War II, Winston Churchill established a secret organization called the Special Operations Executive (SOE). This group was tasked with creating chaos behind enemy lines by employing unconventional tactics, including amphibious assaults and sabotage missions. Gus March-Phillips, a decorated British officer, played a key role in leading these covert operations, contributing significantly to Allied efforts during the war. It was this group that inspired Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Located near Cameroon’s coast lies a port under Nazi control on the island of Fernando Po (now known as Bioko). This port serves as the primary supply hub for Der Führer’s mid-Atlantic fleet of U-boats, which have been enforcing a blockade on Great Britain and preventing American aid from reaching the country.

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With Britain on the cusp of collapse, Gus March-Phillips and his band of borderline psychopaths are secretly recruited by Winston Churchill to clandestinely attack the port and cripple their supply chain and, by extension, the Nazi U-Boat fleet.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Review

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an entertaining film filled with interesting characters played by actors who drip charisma, which is what largely holds the film together. Henry Cavill plays Gus March-Phillips and is arguably the most charming man alive. Certainly, he’s the most charming actor working in Hollywood today, and his effervescent enthusiasm can’t help but be contagious.

In every scene that he’s in, it’s plain that both he and his castmates are having a blast, and it’s this, more than anything, that will put a smile on your face even as they repeatedly and efficiently butcher Nazi after cabbage-eating Nazi.

Unfortunately, as much fun as the film’s action might be, its full potential is hampered by what often feels like the obligatory and almost rhythmic interruptions of a rather uninteresting subplot led by Eiza González’s Marjorie Stewart. Stewart, another of Churchill’s agents, is to be the honeypot that gains access to the Nazi garrison’s leader and, thereby, information vital to March-Phillips’ mission. However, she doesn’t learn anything from him that couldn’t have been gleaned from men of much lower rank and importance or even by rifling through an office drawer.

Moreover, despite his always chilling portrayal of an evil German, Til Schweiger‘s Heinrich Luhr is as generic and unnecessary a villain as they come. Stereotypically evil to the point of emotional irrelevancy, Luhr and his troops never truly give the sense of impending danger that Ritchie and team were ostensibly going for.

That’s not entirely Schweiger’s fault, nor is it completely the fault of González’s somewhat wooden performance. Instead, most of the blame lies with Ungentlemanly Warfare’s writers and director. Stewart’s storyline is boring and feels entirely contrived, which is fitting since it is also the most fictionalized part of the film. In real life Stewart did some admin work in London and was nowhere near Fernando Po.

Then there is Ritchie’s sloppy pacing. Every time the film begins to find a groove with Phillips and his men delivering bloody justice to a group of disposable Nazis, the film jarringly interrupts with Stewart’s B-plot. The problem is that Phillips et al. spend most of the movie on a boat trying to get to where they are going, and Stewart’s story actually was contrived to give the audience something “interesting” to watch while they wait. It is not.

Finally, Guy’s insistence on such a strong focus on the secondary story robs audiences of the needed time to properly develop a deeper connection with Phillips and his men. By all accounts, the real Phillips was a man’s man of such natural bold charisma that not only was James Bond largely based on him, but months after his untimely death, his entire commando team of 55 men disbanded. Were the audience given more time and reason to connect with him and his group, it would have lent an emotional bond that would have elevated the action beyond simple fun.

With all of that said, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is mostly entertaining, and even its lesser moments don’t drag. Despite its warts, the good is almost good enough for us to mark it as Worth it. You probably won’t feel cheated if you buy a ticket to watch it, but lower your expectations a bit for maximum enjoyment.

P.S. It’s become fairly common in modern movies to overlay a classic song on top of brutal action as an intentionally jarring juxtaposition. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it feels forced. In this movie, there is a rendition of Bobby Darin’s Mack The Knife that is absolutely atrocious. Its vocals are fine, but the sound mixing and the song are all wrong. Mack The Knife has written into it several instances of vocal ornamentation to add flair. However, this sudden change of rhythm does not fit the movie’s score, which is laid over Mack The Knife’s original instrumentation.

It seems small, but it takes place at the movie’s climax and is really bad. Just because the song was originally from a German penny opera and mentions tugboats is not sufficient cause to put it where it doesn’t belong.

P.P.S. Boby Darin’s version of the song (the one that the movie uses) wasn’t recorded until almost 20 years after the events in the movie.

Role Models

With A Caveat

• I am not saying that men should model themselves after bloodthirsty killers. I am saying that the portrayal of strong and capable men of bold resolve taking care of business and that learning to be a leader of men is both valuable and fulfilling.
  • Cavill’s March-Phillips embodies a man that other men want to be, and women want to be with.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Ain’t No Damsels Around Here

• While Marjorie Stewart was a real person who worked for the actual SOE and became an actress afterward, it is unclear if she was a spy, and I can find nothing to corroborate that she was a marksman. Furthermore, she was almost certainly not directly involved with Operation Postmaster (the operation portrayed in the film) whatsoever.
  • Given that this only comes up during the establishing scene and one other single action, it would appear that the character’s status as a marksman had only two purposes.
    • The marketing materials.
    • Because we couldn’t have her really needed to be rescued by a man, could we?