A brilliant body of work
Directed by: John Madden
Written by: Michelle Ashford
Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Johnny Flynn
Swift shot: The most fascinating deception in the history of espionage . . . that we know about. But it is what you don’t know about this story that makes Operation Mincemeat a compelling watch. Only Ian Fleming (Flynn) could come up with something so brilliant. But this isn’t technically his story, it’s a love-triangle story playing out in the middle of the most vicious war of the twentieth century.
Back when I lived in the barracks, I used to watch this great sci-fi show called Space Above and Beyond, it was based on this series from the sixties called Combat, and it was about a unit of future Marines surviving an alien invasion. One of the episodes had a plot about using the corpse of a condemned convict to fool the aliens about the Corps’ true intentions for a large-scale assault on the enemy planet. I hadn’t yet heard of The Man Who Never Was or the calculated deception, but for reasons I couldn’t really explain until now, the story has always fascinated me.
With the 1956 movie, the focus is mostly on the Germans trying to suss out the disinformation campaign in London, as they are convinced the Allied invasion of Europe will logically be in Sicily. But with Operation Mincemeat, there’s a lot more to the story that we never knew about . . . until now.
Sadly, the whole film revolves around a bizarre love triangle that is only allowable if it is historically accurate. If it was tacked on to amp up the drama and romance, that’s almost unforgivable. But if this is what the lives of these major players of the secret war was truly like, I will defer to historical accuracy.
Ewen Montagu (Firth) is a barrister who has been called up by his nation to serve as a supply officer, but in reality he’s working with MI5. His superior is the eternally unimpressed Director of the Naval Intelligence Division, Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) or as you probably better know him, M!
Charles Cholmondeley (Macfayden) is also a member of the Division and has come up with an adaptation of Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming’s so-called “Trout Memo” to use a corpse carrying false documents as a Trojan Horse to deceive the Nazis. Operation Trojan Horse is quickly changed to the (less obvious?) Mincemeat, and now they must convince Churchill to risk the lives of thousands of men on this piece of mortal theatre.
Almost completely defying common sense, Cholmondeley decides to use the picture of one of MI5’s clerks, Jean Leslie (Macdonald) as part of the “wallet rubbish” to be discovered in the body’s jacket. Her condition for using the photo is a spot at the table. But as the story progresses, the tension builds up between Charles and Ewen, who are both smitten with Jean. And it’s clear they want her to have a spot in their bed.
[Swift aside: As the details of this story keep expanding over time, I wonder if this faux pas was also intentional for reasons we don’t yet understand?]
Once they are fully committed to the perverse plot, they have to locate the perfect cadaver. You might think that would be easy in the middle of a war, but they quickly learn that they need a sort of Goldilocks body. It has to look like he drowned after his plane crashed over Spain. There’s so many things that can potentially go wrong with the plan, and even though you historically know the outcome, it truly is a miracle they managed to pull it off at all!
And, this is where people are going to be not so happy, as it turns out a lot of what we thought we knew about this plot, was wrong. I can already see the purist versus revisionist historians squabbling over the “twist” that this film reveals in the third act.
I won’t give anything away, but I will say it makes a lot more sense to me than the 1956 version. And I spotted it coming, even though I am no brilliant spy.
If you ignore a lot of the romantic drivel, this is a perfect prequel to James Bond. You are introduced to the real James Bond, M, Q, and others that I am sure I didn’t even realize. There’s some neat little Harry Potter nods as well, again, if you are looking for them, and I absolutely loved seeing Young Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) as a master spy!
If you aren’t familiar with this story, this is a perfect time to learn all about the levels of deception deployed by nations to spread disinformation. And I honestly can’t think of a better time when the zeitgeist for that is on display every single day.
I often ponder what someone like Steele, errr, I mean Fleming could pull off with today’s technology. Operation Mincemeat is perfect for anyone who loves spy films, who loves World War II films, and wants to know what it truly (ha ha) takes to win a war.
