Guy Ritchie directing a movie on the real Operation Postmaster goes about as poorly as you would expect. Why base a war movie on real people? Those people gave their lives for freedom from the Nazis, but they get zero respect from Ritchie. You'd think a British director whose own father served might have a modicum of respect for history.
The casting was my first objection. The three male leads March-Phillipps, Lassen and Appleyard are played by actors who are a decade or two older than the soldiers they depict, who were mostly in their early twenties. The only character with age appropriate casting is Henry Hayes. Cavill and Ritchson are especially poorly cast. Lassen was a slim 22 year old Danish soldier, portrayed here by a 40 year old American beefcake who looks like he spends his life in the gym.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the movie plays like a Disney ride with zero sense of danger. The Nazis are easily dispatched by hip-fired silent guns at range and the protagonists don't miss a single shot. The good guys always get the jump on the Germans. The scenes of Lassen engaging in hand to hand combat with multiple opponents are complete fantasy, no more real than a Marvel movie. Likewise, the Nazi is your typical paper thin, moustache twirling villain.
The casting falls prey to the modern requirements for quotas. The Germans would have loved it. Marjorie Stewart was a real British spy, but she was not Jewish, not Mexican, and not involved in Operation Postmaster. The same applies to Richard Heron and Kambili Kalu. There's very little of the actual history left in this theme park ride.
The real punch in the gut is at the end of the movie, where they show actual photographs and short bios of the real heroes who carried out this mission. None of the biographies mention that March-Phillipps, Lassen, Appleyard and Hayes were all dead before the end of the war. How do you make a war movie about fallen heroes and forget to mention that they all gave the ultimate sacrifice? You should be ashamed Mr Ritchie. Just make a up a story next time, like the good movies that you used to direct back in the day.
The casting was my first objection. The three male leads March-Phillipps, Lassen and Appleyard are played by actors who are a decade or two older than the soldiers they depict, who were mostly in their early twenties. The only character with age appropriate casting is Henry Hayes. Cavill and Ritchson are especially poorly cast. Lassen was a slim 22 year old Danish soldier, portrayed here by a 40 year old American beefcake who looks like he spends his life in the gym.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the movie plays like a Disney ride with zero sense of danger. The Nazis are easily dispatched by hip-fired silent guns at range and the protagonists don't miss a single shot. The good guys always get the jump on the Germans. The scenes of Lassen engaging in hand to hand combat with multiple opponents are complete fantasy, no more real than a Marvel movie. Likewise, the Nazi is your typical paper thin, moustache twirling villain.
The casting falls prey to the modern requirements for quotas. The Germans would have loved it. Marjorie Stewart was a real British spy, but she was not Jewish, not Mexican, and not involved in Operation Postmaster. The same applies to Richard Heron and Kambili Kalu. There's very little of the actual history left in this theme park ride.
The real punch in the gut is at the end of the movie, where they show actual photographs and short bios of the real heroes who carried out this mission. None of the biographies mention that March-Phillipps, Lassen, Appleyard and Hayes were all dead before the end of the war. How do you make a war movie about fallen heroes and forget to mention that they all gave the ultimate sacrifice? You should be ashamed Mr Ritchie. Just make a up a story next time, like the good movies that you used to direct back in the day.
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