Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin
‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ a film by Guy Richie. Courtesy of Loulou Bontemps
This movie is a western, it tells us as much from the start, announcing its genre clearly with frills and trills that could have been composed by Ennio Morricone.
The story is about a win for the Allies during WWII, a la Guy Richie, but it’s also the story of the beginning of what we think of today as Black Ops, or covert military operations.
The costumes were designed by Loulou Bontemps, a long-time collaborator with Mr. Richie, and I spoke with her about the enormous task of sourcing and recreating all of the period costumes, which include innumerable military uniforms from a half dozen sovereign nations.
“When we started the film,” Bontemps told me, “I don’t think Guy really expected the clothes to be as beautiful as they were. He had not done a film in that period, and I think the majority of those films don’t necessarily show off the fashion. I think everybody was really quite surprised by it all. The first day on set, especially seeing Henry [Cavill] in costume, Guy was like, oh my God, I want this. I want that.”
This is mirrored in the script, with cheeky dialogue between the British lads, admiring the fine tailoring of the enemy’s uniform.
Gold Coast Battery in action. Boors gun firing at target during training. This Gold Coast Battery …
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is honorable in the spirit of its source material, if not to the exact ins and outs of any particular historical event.
There were lines in this film that required me to hit ‘pause’ so that I could write them down. “I can’t sleep for the relentless howl of jungle entropy.”
Eiza González as Marjorie Stewart dressed as Cleopatra and Til Schweiger as Heinrich Luhr. Courtesy of Loulou Bontemps
During the early years of WWII, fighting over control of the Atlantic was largely related to the fact that Britain is an island nation, which inherently means a national dependence on imports.
Beginning September 13, 1941, the European Allies began receiving “unofficial” air support and ships from the United States.
The film opens with Churchill and his team lamenting the current state of the war, and the need Britain, as well as the rest of Europe, have for America to officially join the conflict and help clean up the U-boat situation in the Atlantic.
Eiza González as Marjorie Stewart dressed as Cleopatra. Courtesy of Loulou Bontemps
When you consider the planning required to make this grand of a scale of a story; how a movie uses the aesthetic it imbibes as a way to make a statement about a character more clear than is sometimes impossible to convey in mere words.
1934: Claudette Colbert (1903 – 1996), originally Claudette Lily Chauchoin, poses in a shimmering …
“Thank God for books,” Bontemps said. “Thank God for history books, because I just delved so deep into Africa and I was almost embarrassed that I didn’t know about it already, but the fashion, oh my God, it’s just so, so beautiful.”
Movie Poster for Guy Richie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” Courtesy of Loulou Bontemps
In Churchill’s Secret Warriors, as well as in other research and writing about this era, everyone is in agreement that there were many talented, dedicated and capable women involved in this particular theater of war.
Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website. Rachel Elspeth Gross Following Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions
<p
