The true story of a top secret British operation to deceive ​ the Germans
​using a corpse and some false documents during World War II.

BIOPIC/DRAMA/WAR

Operation Mincemeat (2022)

Directed by John Madden

Written by Michelle Ashford

Starring Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs, Johnny Flynn, Mark Gatiss

Based on the book Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story
​that Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre

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Connor Eyzaguirre

June 20, 2022

8/10

The more time progresses, the more top secret operations of certain wars are made public to the world. Case in point, Operation Mincemeat. On paper, it sounds absolutely insane; the product of too many far-fetched war movies. In truth, operatives of the British Secret Service conspired to plant false documents on a corpse that they ensured washed up on the coast of Spain, knowing German spies would find it. In those documents was fake evidence that the British army would be invading mainland Europe through Greece, when in truth they were planning to invade through Sicily. Amazingly, the ruse worked, Hitler moved his troops out of Sicily and into Greece, and the Allied invasion of Sicily had minimal casualties and became a turning point in the war for the Allies. All thanks to a crack team of daydreamers who came up with a story so crazy it had to be real.

Apart from the addition of an unnecessary love triangle, the film captures the intensity and unbelievability in the mission perfectly. The performances are all wonderful, notably Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald. I must also praise Johnny Flynn as a young Ian Fleming, whose days in the British military influenced his iconic James Bond novels for decades. It's hard to believe how much hinged on the success of this one operation. Much like The Imitation Game, Operation Mincemeat shows you the nitty gritty "secret war" that the British fought behind closed doors amidst uncrackable codes and dangerous spies. That's where the tides truly turned.

Operation Mincemeat is another entertaining biopic of a piece of World War II I had previously known nothing about. It's somewhat alarming to know how many operations that were thought to be too crazy to work ended up being not only successful, but crucial to winning the war. It makes me wonder what piece of previously top secret information will deserve its own movie next.