There are gentlemanly ways to behave during a war and not so gentlemanly ones. The latter was the case when then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill authorized a deep undercover operation to topple the Nazis during the early years of WWII using the most unorthodox military means.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on Damien Lewis’ 2014 book , a highly-fictionalized version of Operation Postmaster. Lewis has written several other books on the topic.
The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Guy Ritchie and written by Arash Amel (A Private War, Rise) so you know that it’s filled with heart-stopping action.
Screenwriter Arash Amel spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine to discuss how this project came about.
From Churchill’s Declassified Documents To Novel To Film
“It’s often easy to forget that before the Second World War, and before the events of the movie and the formation of Number 62 Commando Unit, there were actually rules to war. It had a set of gentlemanly rules of conduct about how you strike, where you strike, who you bomb, and how you bomb them. What happened with the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, there was an increasing tendency by the Germans to bend, if not break, those rules,” says Amel.
The extraordinary story of this top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, tracks a daring mission using entirely unconventional fighting techniques. Ultimately, their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare.
Public knowledge began when the Churchill documents were declassified. Then came Lewis’ book to which Amel gives a lot of credit. “Lewis pieced together over a decade of secret military history in an extremely readable form.”
“I would highly recommend reading the book because it isn’t quite a history lesson. It really does bring these characters to life. And then, to borrow from Bill Goldman, a book is a book and a movie is a movie.”
Arash Amel
“And in this case, history is history, and trying to condense what was a very complex and multifaceted piece of history into two hours of a movie was challenging. Then we asked what kind of a movie will it be and what kind of a tone do we want? Who’s our audience for this?”
Arash Amel had just completed The Private War in 2018 when Jerry Bruckheimer approached him to write The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Jerry asked Arash where the movie is in the book. All Jerry knew was that it was going to focus on Operation Postmaster which was the most daring mission at the time.
The facts were known, but Arash needed to hone the tone of his war screenplay. He turned to the great war movies that he remembered as a child including The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Guns Of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, and even, Kelly’s Heroes for creative inspiration.
“I loved those daring adventure movies that I felt had been forgotten. I think that the only time it’s been done recently is in Inglourious Basterds, which is very Quentin Tarantino and has a unique voice.”
The unit was assembled from many parts of the world. “A lot of colonial fighting and street fighting styles were brought into the biggest mechanized war in history, which was all about bombs, planes and tanks. Yet these men and women went in there with small boats and trawlers with bows and arrows with knives. They hunted Nazis as they slept. So there was something very fresh and original here.”
Despite the stellar cast and crew, the filmmakers still had to convince a studio that WWII movies are still worth making.
Arash Amel sees The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare as an “old high adventure.”
“You have this heritage, this cinema legacy of adventure movies like Pirates Of The Caribbean, even the Mission Impossible movies and space movies like Armageddon. There is this sense of high adventure to it. That’s what I wanted to capture.”
He even draws inspiration from westerns and the elevated work of John Sturges (The Great Escape).
The film is also punctuated with ample comedic moments. “The comedy is very much Guy Ritchie and that’s the elevation of the humor.”
Assembling The Operatives
Churchill brought together a unique crew, each member with special skills, united in their quest to conquer the Nazis. It was akin to Danny Ocean assembling his heist crew. “My first pitch to a studio was,’Imagine The Dirty Dozen meets Ocean’s Eleven in the style of Guy Ritchie.” Arash Amel made this pitch before Guy Ritchie was involved.
“Gus Marsh Phillips’ (Henry Cavill) character may be embellished in the movie, but it really is true to life. Gus was infamous for having blown a bridge up contrary to High Command’s orders during the British retreat in Norway in 1939. That was his personality. He was a wonderful and crazy individual.”
“Gus was the guy who explored different knife and other forms of fighting. He had a very outside the box kind of existence. He was also a novelist and he would write these race horse novels.”
“His best friend was Jeffrey “Apple” Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) and they fought in Dunkirk together. They were very ‘hand in glove.’ Apple was much more measured. He was the strategist. He was the planner and true to life.”
“Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) did truly exist to kill Nazis. He had a personal vendetta against them. He tried to join the RAF, the Navy, the army, but none of them would let him in when he first showed up. He did use the bow and arrow.”
“Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) was actually a chap called Graham Hayes. We changed his nationality to acknowledge the involvement and commitments of the Irish guard fighters. He is a composite character from actual events.”
“Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) wasn’t physically on the mission, but she was integral to it succeeding and she was closely involved. She was an actress. She was a very close right hand to Brigadier Gubbins ‘M’ (Cary Elwes).” She too, is a composite character.
Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) Photo by Dan Smith/ Lionsgate
“She was also formidable in that she would train all the female Special Operations Executive operatives that would go out behind enemy lines in France.”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was flanked by a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming who would later write the popular James Bond novels.
“Fleming was a strategic planner. While the team was out on the mission, Fleming was a young naval intelligence officer who M was very impressed with, so he recruited him. He was instrumental in planning the core of Operation Postmaster.”
“And, obviously all the people that were on the mission ended up inspiring the world that would become James Bond. If you look at Bond, he has this do or die attitude and swagger which you’ll see in Henry Hayes.”
“It all flowed from Churchill. He wanted to make a deal with Hitler, to help with his own cabinet and Parliament. He actually used private, black, and other slush funds to finance this unit.”
Writing Process
Like many studio films, The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare used a raft of writers and underwent many drafts.
Paul Tamasay and Eric Johnson (The Outpost, Patriots Day) wrote the early drafts to capture the spirit of the adventure. They were more of a historical telling of events, but ultimately, not the high-octane adventure the studio wanted. They were written several years before Arash boarded the project. He didn’t read these drafts until much later in his writing process.
Arash also wrote multiple drafts over four years without studio attachment. This was in collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman (President Of Production at Bruckheimer Films). The studio was six months away from releasing the option so they gave it one last chance by turbo-charging the story. “We were really kind of getting under the hood.”
At one point, Arash Amel took Churchill out of the script because he was too overpowering. It was only after a meeting with Ridley Scott that this decision was reversed and the movie was working again.
By that time, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was in search of a director. Arash recalled his initial studio pitch and suggested Guy Ritchie to direct – his first and only choice. “Guy has his process which is very improvisational.” He also wrote the sequence where they break into the Nazi compound to steal intelligence leading to a screenwriting credit.
“I’ve done a few of these true life adaptations, so I have this very specific approach,” adds Amel of his writing process.
“It’s not quite like Sorkin who quotes, ‘truth being the enemy of good,’ although it’s true up to a certain point. If you stray too far from the truth, you also lose the purpose and the point of the story that you’re telling.”
“So for me, there’s this natural tension. That begins in identifying the characters, the events, the moments, the themes and the essence of what the true events are and what makes them exciting. And then using that as a basis to grow from.”
“If I’ve done my job properly, by the time the movie is finished, it doesn’t matter how much has been embellished. It doesn’t matter how Guy Ritchie has experimented or changed certain aspects of the story. Everything routes back to some aspect of reality. Even though there was the raid on the German compound, and they didn’t rescue someone, the mechanics are true.“
