Product: The Man Who Never Was (2005)
Rating: 5.0
The British Style of Warfare
Britain has traditionally been a naval power but neverhad a large standing army. This has prodded its militaryplanners to think in unconventional terms in strikingat its enemies. This means using its naval forces tomove stealthily around its continental enemiesusing naval forces and to try to use deceptionto get the enemy off guard, rather than confrontingthem head on. The failed First World War operation at Gallipoli wasa good example of this, trying to strike at Germany"through the back door", rather than just head onin the blood-soaked trenches of Flanders on theWestern Front.In the Second World War, all the British leaders andsenior officershad been traumatized by the slaughter of theFirst World War and were desperate to come up withways of avoiding a replay. Thus, in 1943, after NorthAfrica had been cleared of Axis forces, the Britishmilitary leaders sought a way to distract the Germansfrom the obvious next target, which was Sicily.The result was deception of "Operation Mincemeat" which is portrayedin this excellent film. The film is based on EwenMontagu's book "The Man Who Never Was". This filmis of a long-lost genre of films which are rivetingin spite of the fact that they don't have any "action",(i.e. shoot-outs, fist fights, car chases, etc), like another of my favorites "Twelve Angry Men".A close observation of the film shows, beside the mainstory, a lot of other information showing what wartimeBritain was like, such as how London became run-downand grimy during the long years of bombing and austerity,how the British learned to take the air raids in stride,the resignation to the on-going deaths of relatives andfriendsand the shortages of quality consumer goods. In addition,we see the manifestations of the traditionally tense relationship betweenBritain and Ireland as well as Scotland. For militarybuffs, there is a brief look at the legendary Mosquitofighter/bomber and the unsung British submarine force (ascompared to those of the United States and the GermanU-Boat force).One thing to keep in mind is that while Montagu makesno mention of German efforts to authenticate the existenceof "Major Martin", the film devotes a considerable partof its plot to that, which I assume is "overdramatized"to keep the interest of the audience. The film claimsthat the German (actually Irish) agent actually gets incontact with someone who had a part in the whole operation,and I doubt whether this is factual. However,this is a minor point and does not detract from the excellence of the film.