Hot off the heels of his wildly successful Netflix series The Gentlemen, filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s latest project is effectively his version of a James Bond film, set amid World War II.
An adaptation of Damien Lewis’s 2014 nonfiction book about Operation Postmaster, the film features Ian Fleming, a British intelligence officer in 1942, conspiring with Prime Minister Winston Churchill to derail Germany’s U-boat supplies. As the story goes, this mission, and its designated leader, Gus March-Phillips, formed the basis for what would later become the James Bond literary franchise.
Donning a cartoonish accent that complements the film’s broadly unserious and lighthearted tone, Henry Cavill plays March-Phillips. He’s a maverick combatant with a blithe attitude toward authority and a proclivity for violence, the stereotypical rogue gun you hire to do your dirty work.
The Germans have cleverly established their supply chain in neutral territory, making it impossible for the United Kingdom to attack without expanding the Axis’s allies.
“Hitler’s not playing by the rules, so why should we?” asked an embattled Churchill, portrayed serviceably by Rory Kinnear, evoking Churchill’s oratory cadence and his finely tailored three-piece suits.
This early scene, in which Churchill debriefs March-Phillips on the unsanctioned U-boat mission, is a testament to Ritchie’s filmmaking prowess. It tells you everything you need to know about the character without wasting time divulging any extraneous backstory. While some soldiers may be humbled or overwhelmed in the private company of Churchill, March-Phillips, when asked to pour himself a cup of tea, instead reaches for the scotch, pouring himself a glass before proceeding to stuff his pockets with the prime minister’s cigars.
With his mission in hand, March-Phillips proceeds to recruit a team of similarly violent and mischievous misfits. His No. 2 is Anders Lassen. Played by Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, he sports a hulking frame of such proportions that it manages to make Cavill, the former Superman actor, appear tame in contrast. Bereaved over the murder of his brother at the hands of the Gestapo, Lassen, in a highly cartoonish Swedish accent, has made it his vocation to maim and dismember Nazis in increasingly entertaining ways. Ritchson and Cavill share an obvious chemistry, trading witty banter as they revel in their violent craft of weeding out the Nazi ranks.
Although the clandestine sleuthing is often eschewed in favor of maximizing Nazi carnage, parallels to 007 are palpable throughout the film. March-Phillips and his crew must evade detection of both the Allied forces and the Nazis — and given that they can only shoot their way out of an encounter with the latter, they err toward danger. Colored by Ritchie’s recognizable flashy style and wry humor, the film feels far more authentically English than most recent Bond movies.
Loosely based on real characters and events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is about as historically accurate as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the film’s closest aesthetic parallel.
Historical epics such as Saving Private Ryan have their place, but it is a shame we don’t have more action spy comedies based on World War II fables. Whether it is Sgt. Donny Donowitz (The Bear Jew) or Swedish bodybuilding butcher Anders Lassen, watching virile mercenaries mow down Nazis with vigor is never tiring.
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Aside from its triumphs in this department, Ritchie also astutely conveys the importance of Churchill’s unnerving determination to fight. Outnumbered by liberal politicians who persist for peace at any price, which they see as appeasement to Hitler, he doggedly responds, “It isn’t appeasement, it’s surrender. Hitler is evil and must be defeated.” It is daunting to ponder the ramifications of a lesser man at the helm of Britain in the face of this adversity.
There have been years of speculation about who the future Bond may be. Though it has been confirmed that Cavill won’t land the role, his portrayal of its progenitor in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an indulgent treat from Ritchie, and arguably a better film than most recent Bond movies.
Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto, pursuing his MBA.