It is sometimes said that the true story is more incredible than the fictional one and the movie ‘The Weapon of Deception – Operation Mincemeat’ it is a clear demonstration of this. It is released in Italian cinemas on Thursday 12 May and tells a real event that took place during the Second World War, when the British secret services tried to deceive Adolf Hitler about the imminent landing in Sicily. Critics spoke well of it, albeit without enthusiasm.
‘The Weapon of Deception – Operation Mincemeat’, all about the film
The plot follows quite closely what actually happened. We are in the spring of 1943 and the Allies have decided to disembark in Sicily and to go up to Italy in order to weaken the southern front of the fascist and Nazi forces. The British secret service believes that the Germans are aware of the plan and therefore try to muddy the waters, convincing Hitler that the main breakdowns would have taken place in Greece and Sardinia and that Sicily would have been used as a diversion to subtract the Axis forces from the primary objectives. The idea is to have the Germans find the corpse of a British officer wearing false confidential documents, the contents of which would mislead them.
At the basis of the film ‘The weapon of deception – Operation Mincemeat’ there is an essay written by the historian Ben Macintyre. The task of turning it into a screenplay was taken on by Michelle Ashford, nominated for an Emmy for the TV miniseries ‘The Pacific’ (set during World War II, on the Pacific Ocean front). The direction was signed by John Maddenfamous for such titles as ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (which earned him an Oscar nomination), ‘Proof – The Proof’, ‘Marigold Hotel’ and ‘Miss Sloane – Power Games’.
The cast is made up of, among others Colin Firth (‘The king’s speech), Matthew Macfadyen (‘Pride and Prejudice’), Penelope Wilton (‘Marigold Hotel’), Kelly Mcdonald (‘It is not a country for old people’), Jason Isaacs (the Lucius Malfoy from the ‘Harry Potter’ saga) e Simon Russell Beale (‘Dead Stalin, make another one’). Furthermore, Ian Flemingnaval officer and future creator of the James Bond literary character, has the face of Johnny Flynn (‘Emma.’).
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Reviews, what critics think
‘The Weapon of Deception – Operation Mincemeat’ is a rather classic war and espionage film, in the development of the plot as in the management of the direction: hence the impressions of a large part of the critics, and that is that it does not add much to what has already been seen at other times in the cinema. Apart, of course, the curiosity of a story bordering on the incredible, which alone has what it takes to entertain potential viewers, but is not enough to make the film enter the history of cinema, or report it as a particularly significant title. .