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.
Woman identified as person killed in fall at daughter's Ohio State graduation
Midea reports 10% revenue increase in Q1
China, Vietnam hold 8th border defense friendship exchange
China's trade with other BRICS members up 11.3 pct in Q1
Lok Sabha elections 2024: Why Modi and BJP face strong resistance in south India
Japan PM Kishida sends offering to notorious war
Experts urge stronger support for biodiversity conservation
AI data training supported by domestic chips, supercomputers
Ancelotti keeps Lunin in goal for Madrid in 2nd leg of Champions League semifinal against Bayern
A North Carolina man is charged with mailing an antisemitic threat to a Georgia rabbi
Kylie Jenner and longtime pal Rosalia arrive back at the Mark Hotel in NYC hand
Iran condemns sanctions by US, Britain, Canada