THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE | ©2024 Lionsgate

Rating: R
Stars: Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza Gonzales, Babs Olusanmokun, Cary Elwes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Henry Golding, Rory Kinnear, Freddie Fox, Danny Sapani
Writers: Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson and Arash Amel and Guy Ritchie, based on the book THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE: HOW CHURCHILL’S SECRET WARRIORS SET EUROPE ABLAZE AND GAVE BIRTH TO MODERN BLACK OPS by Damien Lewis
Director: Guy Ritchie
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: April 19, 2024

If James Bond had adventures in World War II, and were more of a team player, what he got up to might look something like THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE. Indeed, it is said that the main character here, Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), an historical figure, was the model for writer Ian Fleming’s superspy. Fleming appears here as a character, played by Freddie Fox.

We get “based on a true story” at the start, as well as a notation that this is taken from the confidential files of Winston Churchill, which were declassified in 2016. The film is based on the nonfiction 2015 tome THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE: HOW CHURCHILL’S SECRET WARRIORS SET EUROPE ABLAZE AND GAVE BIRTH TO MODERN BLACK OPS by Damien Lewis (not to be confused with the actor Damian Lewis).

We’re introduced straightaway to March-Phillipps and his men, Danish killer Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), English strategist Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Irish Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), and explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding). With plenty of violence but little difficulty, they take down a Nazi boarding party on their little fishing boat, then blow up a Nazi battleship.

We then flash back twenty-five days. World War II is raging in Europe, but the U.S. hasn’t yet sent in troops. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear, unrecognizable under the makeup) is afraid if something isn’t done about all the German submarines in the Atlantic, the Americans will either get blown up on the way over, or not come at all.

So, Churchill’s strategy is to summon constantly-in-trouble but highly-effective military man March-Phillipps. March-Phillipps insists on assembling his own squad. Their task is to destroy a Nazi ship, currently docked off of West Africa, which carries food and other supplies to the German submarine fleet.

There are elements of THE DIRTY DOZEN, CASABLANCA and all sorts of other WWII movies mixed in here, along with the gleeful bloody violence of contemporary action movies. In THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE, it is definitely okay to punch Nazis (as well as shoot, stab, detonate and otherwise obliterate them).

It’s hard to credit that March-Phillipps and his people consistently got out of such dire scrapes with such ease in real life. Still, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE under Guy Ritchie’s direction, from a script he co-wrote with Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson and Arash Amel, has such surety of tone that we can suspend our disbelief for the duration.

Standouts in the cast include Eiza Gonzales as an extremely capable and seductive Allied femme fatale, Babs Olusanmokun as a helpful casino owner, and Ritchson, who seems to be having a ball as the cheerfully psychotic Lassen.

It seems a bit much to say that what we see here is the birth of modern black ops, as leaders had been sending operatives on undercover missions since well before World War II, but the real March-Phillipps is credited with updating that school of warfare.

If this period and playful stiff upper lips and WWII settings and weaponry appeal to you, and you’re okay with a self-congratulatory tone, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE looks great and provides all of these with chipper energy.

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