Please teach me archery, Mr. Ritchson, I’ll be so normal about it.

THE BIG PICTURE

 Alan Ritchson is a fantastic choice for the bow-and-arrow-wielding Anders Lassen in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare .
 Ritchson did a lot of preparation for his role as Anders and this made for some of the most interesting scenes of the movie.
 Although Anders is a man of few words, Ritchson’s charisma and action skills stole the show.

When I walked into The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, I was pretty sure I knew what I was getting into. Based on 2014’s Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damian Lewis, the action comedy is an incredibly fictionalized telling of the events of Operation Postmaster, which saw Major Gus March-Phillipps (portrayed by Henry Cavill in the film) lead a small unit of soldiers in a mission to capture the Duchessa d’Aosta.

Naturally, I expected heaps of creative liberties taken with the history of the event, plenty of action, and an explosion or two. And I got all that and more. However, I was absolutely not prepared for Alan Richtson to hit me like a train.

His portrayal of Anders Lassen put me in some kind of way; I’m not sure if it was the juxtaposition of his intimidating physique and adorable circular glasses, or the expert way he fired his bow, or the way his demeanor still seemed light and friendly amidst ripping out Nazi hearts and getting wild with a knife, but it worked.

It all worked. And it worked too well because there were times when I was ready to leave because I simply could not handle his face. That’s a good thing, I swear.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

The British military recruits a small group of highly-skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.

Release Date: April 19, 2024
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Henry Cavill , Cary Elwes , Alan Ritchson , Eiza Gonzalez
Writers: Guy Ritchie , Paul Tamasy , Eric Johnson , Arash Amel
Runtime: 120 minutes
Main Genre: Action
Studio(s): Black Bear , Toff Guy Films , Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Distributor(s): Lionsgate

Casting Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen was an Excellent Choice

Ritchson’s character in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is, of course, based on a real person. In real life, Major Anders Lassen was a decorated soldier, having earned a Victoria Cross for his role in Operation Roast and a Military Cross for his role in Operation Postmaster.

He was well-known for having a rowdy temper, insane skill with a bow, and little regard for rules, which made him a perfect fit for the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), which carried out raids in enemy territory. Lassen’s post-operation reports often consisted of just five words: “Landed. Killed Germans. F***ed off.”

Pretty badass, right?

Ritchson thought so, too. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson said Lassen was the “baddest dude [he’d] ever seen on paper in [his] life” and that he was excited to enter the role. In preparation, Ritchson brushed up on the man his role was based on, reading four books on Lassen, and began learning archery and practicing the Danish accent with a dialect coach.

All of his research led to him going to Guy Ritchie’s trailer to explain his take on Lassen and push for his scenes to be gorier and the fight choreography to have more intensity and hate, as he said Lassen “hated these Nazis…He didn’t just want to kill [them].

He wanted hate kills.” This created one of the most intense scenes in the film, as Anders works his way up the tower, killing every soldier in sight, as he tries to reach Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer). There’s a moment where Anders holds a human heart in his hand. That was all Ritchson’s idea!

The dedication Ritchson had while preparing for and executing the role of Anders Lassen is impressive. As a historian, I can appreciate the research Ritchson did to better understand the man behind his role, even if the film was only a loose retelling of events.

Something about that kind of attention to detail just butters my biscuit, yet I’m glad I didn’t know it before watching the film. I don’t think my heart could have taken seeing Ritchson pull that bowstring and knowing he learned archery because he wanted to do the role — and Lassen himself — justice. It would have been too much. I am but one simple man.

Alan Ritchson Consistently Stole the Show in ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’

All that work preparing to bring the role of Anders Lassen to the screen wasn’t in vain, because Ritchson was stealing the show (and my heart…and my brain cells) in every scene he was in. Ritchson was right to push for more rage in Anders’ scenes, because it made each of them compelling to watch and created some of the most memorable scenes in the film.

The scene where Anders is tearing his way through the tower where Appleyard was being held captive is definitely at the top of the list of these memorable moments. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson recalls “rehearsing and planning all night long” for the scene with his stunt double Ryan Tarran and that the day of shooting, he was improvising the entire time to “make [the] vision [of Lassen] come to life.”

This work culminated in a scene with some of the best fight choreography of the film as Anders takes on Nazi soldiers armed only with a knife and his bare hands. The movements are so quick and pointed, but somehow still incredibly fluid, and it’s amazing to watch. Between the incredible stunt work and Ritchson just absolutely serving, I was so excited I nearly left the theater to calm down.

Of course, there is also the film’s opening scene, where Anders and Gus are talking to the German naval officers that have boarded their ship. It shows Anders’ personality right off the bat: little respect for authoritative figures, coolly collected, and quick with a quip and jumping into a fight.

Ritchson shines in this scene in the way he can play both mild and unassuming and also stone-cold and ruthless. The switch happens in an instant as he jumps from his seat to slit the German officer’s throat before throwing down with the other sailors on board.

Especially when put next to Cavill’s Gus March-Phillipps — who was a very smooth and somewhat arrogant operator — Ritchson’s portrayal of Lassen stands out by being both manageable and unmanageable when compared to the team. I found myself looking forward to each time Lassen broke away from the group to do his own thing. March-Phillipps called him greedy. I call him ambitious, especially since Ritchson has really perfected that “how about I do it anyway?” sparkle of the eye.

Last, but certainly not least, is the axe scene. You know the one. Anders is on the ship during the final battle, and he loses his knife, but looks up to see a hatchet on the wall. There’s this absolutely maniacal little smile he makes as he takes it off the wall and starts hacking the enemy to pieces.

And then, through a window, he sees his comrades and waves, like he’s not standing on a pile of bodies with a bloody axe in his hand. It’s poetic cinema, okay?

The duality of man is on full display alongside Ritchson’s massive arms, which he gained through serious weight training after landing the role of Jack Reacher in Amazon Prime’s Reacher, as mentioned in an interview with Men’s Health.

Alan Ritchson Brings a Ridiculous Amount of Charisma to ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’

Though, in addition to all the scenes of carnage, amazing fight choreography, and stunning displays of quiet charisma, there was a scene that just cemented the Ritchson appeal for me. It’s a pretty brief scene in the grand scheme of the film.

It’s just a bit of dialogue between Lassen, Henry Golding’s Freddy, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s Henry. It’s playful, with that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flirtatious edge, but Henry says that if Lassen’s fighting is so rough, he’d hate to see the way he loves, and Lassen says Henry isn’t his type, but Freddy is.

It was such a great way to show Lassen’s more lighthearted side, especially after the siege of the Nazi base, and Ritchson was perfect in his facial expressions and tone of voice. It was a surprisingly memorable moment for me that probably would have been otherwise unremarkable except Ritchson really leaned into it.

Ritchson just has it all in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. He’s charming as Lassen in a way that is understated but so loud. He doesn’t say much — the real Anders Lassen supposedly wasn’t much for words, either — but his face and the way his body moves convey more than dialogue could have, and maybe that’s another reason that the aforementioned scene struck me.

The way Ritchson played Lassen allowed for his few words to be that much more impactful. I hadn’t seen much of Ritchson’s work prior to this film, but I’m sold after seeing the dedication he has to his work and his amazing acting chops.

And also maybe seeing Ritchson shooting a bow and stabbing Nazis did something for me. The man has skills, and he has captivated me.

I’m not saying I dropped my popcorn all over the floor when I saw him shoot the bow the first time, but I am saying that maybe Alan Ritchson owes me eight dollars. If you’re reading this, Mr. Ritchson, just know I would not be mad at you if you slid into my DMs on X and maybe showed me a picture of you holding a tarantula. You know, purely for journalistic purposes. Or to repay me for my damaged dignity and spilled popcorn.