The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare

2024 Lionsgate

Rated: R

Length: 2 hrs

Action ~ Comedy ~ War ~ History ~ True Story

Starring: Henry Cavill, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Henry Golding, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Babs Olusanmokun and Eiza González.

NO RULES. NO REGRETS. JUST VICTORY

Henry Cavill stars as Major Gus March-Phillips who is brought out of Military Prison by Brigadier Colin Gubbins “M” and Ian Fleming late 1941 in England during World War II. He is tasked with heading Operation Postmaster, a last resort mission dreamt up by Winston Churchill, “M” and Ian. An unsanctioned secret operation to go to the Spanish island of Fernando Po in Africa, where the Nazi’s are resupplying their U-boats that are decimating the Royal Navy fleet, and destroy the resupply ships.

Accompanied by Irishman Henry Hayes(Hero Fiennes Tiffin), Freddy “The Buzz” “Frogman” Alvarez(Henry Golding), and “The Danish Hammer” Anders Lassen(Alan Ritchson), they sail around the coast of Africa to La Palma Canary Islands where they storm a Nazi Garrison and extract Geoffrey Appleyard(Alex Pettyfer). They then continue on the Swedish fishing Trawler Maid Of Honor to the Spanish port of Fernando Po to destroy the Nazi resupply ships. A suicide mission fraught with perils and unexpected twists and turns. They sail between the British Navy ships on one side who will incarcerate them and the Nazi U-boats on the other that will kill them.

This is based on the true story of the first Black Ops before there was such a thing. The beginnings of Agencies like the Navy Seals, CIA and other world agencies that were spawned to do the dirty work under the radar. Gus March-Phillips was the inspiration for James Bond in Ian Flemings novels. Sir Christopher Lee who starred in and was a consultant on numerous James Bond movies, was a member of The Ministry Of Gentlemanly Warfare in it’s early days. He was also second cousin to Ian Fleming.

Cavill delivers his most charismatic performance since The Man from U.N.C.L.E., channeling that mustached grit with Guy Ritchie flair, while his co-stars, like a sharp-shooting Eiza González and the ever-reliable Alan Ritchson, match his energy beat for beat. Christopher Lee’s nod to real history adds gravitas, reminding us these men and women changed the course of history.

A thrilling blend of fact, legend, and adrenaline-fueled storytelling, this is one of the best True Story war films of recent years. These men and women helped change the course of history. It’s a fantastic story well told and portrayed by all involved in this movie. I love the True Story Movies and I love this one.

A great adventure!

Well done and highly recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

Alex Pettyfer, Alan Ritchson, Henry Cavill, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Henry Goldin in THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE.
Photo Credit: Dan Smith for Lionsgate.
Courtesy of Lionsgate.

Greyhound

2020 Sony Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 31min

Action ~ Drama ~ History ~ War

Directed by: Aaron Schneider

Starring: Tom Hanks, Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue.

“The only thing more dangerous than the front lines was the fight to get there.”

Tom Hanks stars as US Navy Captain Ernest Krause commanding his first ship, The USS Keeling Destroyer codenamed “Greyhound”. The year is 1942 and Greyhound is assigned as an escort to a convoy of 37 merchant and troop ships headed for Liverpool, England. They have aircraft escorts as well, but they can only fly so far before they reach the point they have to fly back before they run out of fuel. Same thing on the other side of the Atlantic, the British escort fighter planes can only fly out to meet them so many miles. The middle of the Atlantic between these two Airplane boundaries where there is no Air protection from the Nazi U-Boat Submarines was called “The Black Pit”.

The Nazi U-Boat name was short for the German word “Unterseeboot”, meaning Under Sea Boat, shortened to U-Boat. It is the German term for Submarine. It was in The Black Pit where the German U-boats took advantage of the Convoys lack of air cover to hunt ships in the convoys. Without air support they were easy targets. They would typically travel in packs referred to as Wolfpacks to better hunt and sink Allied convoy ships. “Greyhound” details the 40 hour journey across the Black Pit by Captain Krause and his crew aboard the USS Keeling. As one of the four escort ships they encounter numerous U-boats and fight to destroy them and keep the convoy safe.

It is a stress filled, adrenaline fueled 40 hours fighting off ruthless U-boat attacks from every direction. There is little time for eating and no time for sleeping during the highly dangerous passage. Tom Hanks does an excellent job of portraying the Captain on his first mission across the Black Pit, displaying all the various emotions a first time Captain put into that precarious situation must have felt. The loss of men and ships weighing heavily on the man assigned to keep losses from happening. Stephen Graham also does a good job of portraying Lieutenant Commander Charlie Cole. You might remember him as “Baby Face Nelson” in Public Enemies(2009) or as “Tony Pro” Provenzano in “The Irishman”(2019), he has been in a lot of movies.

Elisabeth Shue plays Captain Krause’s girlfriend but you only see her in the very beginning of the movie before he departs out to sea. I thought it was a really great depiction of what it must have been like to cross the Atlantic during WWII. It is a nail-biter that will keep you on the edge of your seat as U-boats seem to come out of every direction to hunt and kill. It is based on the novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester. Although not a true story, it is a pretty accurate account of the crossing by hundreds of Convoys during WWII. During the course of the war there were 3,500 ships carrying millions of tons of cargo sunk. 72,200 souls were lost forever on those ships.