The latest Guy Ritchie flick “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” has a spine of true story to it, even if it does all it can to amplify a long-declassified World War II tale with enough dead Nazis to make “Inglourious Basterds” blush.
The result is a jauntily entertaining film but also an awkward fusion. Ritchie’s film, which opens in theaters Friday, takes the increasingly prolific director’s fondness for swaggering, exploitation-style ultraviolence and applies it to a real-life stealth mission that would have been thrilling enough if it had been told with a little historical accuracy.
In 2016, documents were declassified that detailed Operation Postmaster, during which a small group of British special operatives sailed to the West African island of Fernando Po, then a Spanish colony, in the Gulf of Guinea. Spain was then neutral in the war, which made the Churchill-approved gambit audacious. In January 1942, they snuck into the port and sailed off with several ships — including the Italian merchant vessel Duchessa d’Aosta — that were potentially being used in Atlantic warfare.
Man who won primary election while charged with murder convicted on lesser charge
Facebook and Instagram down in apparent global outages
Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh step in for cancer
NWSL champion Gotham FC sign German goalkeeper Ann
More than 30m Americans could face drinking water crisis as officials find major flaws in US dam
Monica Garcia's baby daddy revealed to be Braxton Knight, 29
Queen Camilla 'hurt' by Prince Harry's blistering attack in Spare which branded her a 'villain'
Priest resigns from Michigan church after protests over his criticism of a gay author
Person in serious condition after incident in Feilding