The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
2024 · Directed by Guy Ritchie
Original language: English
- action
- comedy
- war
The story
During World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization — the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Germans helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations.
What it’s like
Bright Mediterranean sun, sea glare and sunlit stone give way to smoky, lamp-lit interiors: casino floors, hotel bars and back rooms rendered in warm amber and tobacco brown. Guy Ritchie's camera moves quickly, with whip pans, rapid cuts and freeze-frame captions that stamp names and locations onto the screen, so the picture feels brisk and slightly cheeky rather than grim. The score leans on jaunty period jazz and punchy rock-leaning beats that keep the mood buoyant. Its vibe is swaggering, wry and high-spirited, a kind of wartime caper played for smirks as much as for stakes. It suits a Friday night with friends, or a lively escape on a long flight. The tone stays light even through its action, which includes gunfights, explosions and some brief, stylised violence with little gore, and its moments of peril are played for pace rather than dread. Its scenes of Nazi menace and a military prison carry some threat, and there is mild innuendo and some bawdy banter. The people's arcs follow a band of hardened, unruly men and one sharp-tongued woman reluctantly learning to trust each other. It is for viewers who want a fast, irreverent war adventure with plenty of bravado and very little melancholy.
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