The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is very loosely based film of a wartime mission called Operation Postcard. Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), who was commissioned by Winston Churchill to destroy ships used to supply the Nazi German boats.

Along with Phillips other real life members of the team include, Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), and Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), and Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin).

Unfortunately, odd liberties were taken, seemingly for the sake of inclusion, such as black super spy Mr. Heron (Babs Olusanmokun). As a black person myself, the character seemed misplaced and forced, and ultimately didn’t make sense.

Another liberty was in the female character Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González), a real person involved in the mission, but the film made her a weapons expert along with exaggerating her role in the actual mission, which was unnecessary given the cast real life heroes.

The source material of Operation Postcard already records such an incredible feat, so much so that it inspired the character James Bond. The source material actual events were sufficient to make a good film. The added idiosyncrasies are distracting, to say the least, and take away from an already fascinating story.

As an ensemble cast film, the actors do a mostly good job of establishing the pivotal characters and building rapport between them. The camaraderie is apparent, and I was rooting for them as a team throughout the entire film, which made it a fun watch.

However, there is a great deal of objectionable content. When dealing with WW2, the racism, the Nazi symbolism is offensive in and of itself. There is excessive violence with shootings, stabbing, guns, and blood. A man is shown with a torture device on his chest. Blood is visibly shown.

There is a scene where a fictional Nazi General has a truly disgusted look on his face when he believes a woman is a Jew, and that kind of hate resonates in different ways currently. However, biblically, we understand that there is only one “race” the human race, and we all have one blood in that we are descended from Adam and Eve and later Noah and his family. The very idea of race is a social construct. A person with a different skin tone or facial features is no less human than the next.

Regardless of skin color, we are all sinners in need of salvation that can only come through Christ Jesus.

Overall, the film is fairly interesting, but not great. And this movie is very violent and the language is objectionable. If you’re a fan of Guy Richie’s form of storytelling, this could be a fun watch. If you’re more interested in historically accurate views, you may find the creative liberties bothersome.

• Violence: Extreme
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy — include F-words (2) and B*gger
• Profane language: Moderately Heavy — J*sus Chr*st
• Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
• Wokeism: Moderate
• Nudity: nude body of torture victim seen mostly from the rear; cleavage and upper thigh baring dress on woman; crop top
• Sex: Mild to Moderate — innuendos; seductive dancing; homosexual innuendo
• Occult: None

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