Operation Mincemeat, directed by John Madden and starring Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Kelly Macdonald is based on the true events that took place during the execution of the secret Operation Mincemeat, also known as one of the most successful and complex British deception operations ever created. This operation took place in 1943 and played a major part in the victory of the allies against Germany. Executed by the MI5, this mission is now at the heart of Madden’s latest WWII spy movie.
For years, the secret missions of spies during the war have inspired filmmakers. We are taking a look at nine WWII spy dramas that were inspired by true events or characters to watch right after Operation Mincemeat.
Munich — The Edge Of War (2021)
Munich — The Edge of War, directed by Christian Schwochow is based on the novel Munich written by Robert Harris. The story focuses on the 1938 Munich Agreement, signed between Germany, France, Italy and the UK, which stipulated that Adolf Hitler could annex the Sudetenland (a part of western Czechoslovakia), in exchange for a promise that Hitler would cease his expansionist policies, and a promise for peace. Of course, this treaty failed, and in 1939, Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia, and then Poland. The Second World War had begun in Europe. The film stars Jeremy Irons in the role of the head of the UK government Neville Chamberlain, George Mackay as Hugh Legat, a British civil servant and Jannis Niewöhner as Paul von Hartmann, a German diplomat. When the negotiations begin at Munich, the two young men who used to be friends at Oxford, found themselves in the place of spies, thrown into a race to stop Hitler, by any means.
Though this story is based on true events, Von Hartman and Legat are both fictional characters that serve the purpose of the ‘’what if’’ feeling of the movie. The only reserve, or questioning, that could be had, is how Chamberlain is depicted. However, the film is based on Harris’ novel, so it is coherent that the UK leader would be portrayed as the writer saw him. Even if the viewer knows that this agreement could not prevent the war, the two main characters, the dialogues and the hope that maybe, just this once, history can be changed, make of Munich The Edge of War one of the most powerful movie of this list.
Charlotte Gray (2001)
Charlotte Gray, portrayed by Cate Blanchett, is based on the real life character of Nancy Wake, who was one of the most decorated servicewomen to have worked with the French resistance. Wake was named ‘’The White Mouse’’ by the Nazis, due to the ease with which she would escape and fool them. There was a 5m franc price on her head, and she become a true fighting force during the war. She once famously declared ‘’I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more.’’
Her life then inspired Sebastian Faulks to create the character of Charlotte Gray in his eponym novel in 1999, which then inspired Gillian Armstrong to direct the movie, released in 2001. Charlotte Gray is a young Scottish woman who is contacted by the secret services and then joins the French Resistance, with the hope to find her missing lover, a pilot of the RAF.
The Imitation Game (2014)
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Based on the real life events of Alan Turing, a mathematician who was recruited during the Second World War by the MI6, the British intelligence agency, The Imitation Game was released in 2014. Directed by Morten Tyldum, the movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Alan Turing, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Alan Turing’s mission was to crack Nazi codes, and in particular Enigma, which many cryptanalysts had tried to break, in vain.
The cast also includes Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode, who are part of Turing’s cryptography team. Together, they will build the machine that will dycipher the German codes, and will successfully crack Enigma.
The Spy (2019)
Directed by Jens Jonsson, The Spy is based on the life of Sonja Wigert who is portrayed by Norwegian actress Ingrid Bolsø Berdal. Wigert was a famous Norwegian-Swedish movie star recruited by the Swedish intelligence as a spy during WWII. When the war started, Wigert caught the eye of a Nazi officer, Josef Terboven, who made her spy on the Swedes, leading her to live a double life.
In 1943 the Germans realized that Sonja Wigert was not their ally. They spread lies about her, and she became a pariah in Sweden and Norway. After the war, Wigert tried to clear her name, but the rumour that she had been a German spy were too strong. Her honor was partly restored in 1946 but the whole truth about her mission and her real role as a spy were only revealed 25 years later, after her death in 1980.
Female Agents (2008)
This French WWII spy movie was directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, who found his inspiration in an obituary in The Times of Lise de Baissac, who worked in the SOE, the Special Operations Special, created by Winston Churchill in 1940. In total, 39 women had been recruited in the SEO, they were trained to fight, kill and then were sent on missions. For the most part, the women of the SOE died in concentration camps after being arrested and imprisoned. Though they were spies of the British government, they were less protected by their superiors than the men of the MI5 or MI6.
In Female Agents, Louise Desftonaines, portrayed by Sophie Marceau is inspired by Lise de Baissac. Desfontaines’s mission is to exfiltrate a British agent who was captured by the Nazis, as he was planning D-Day. Their mission also involves to kill a German SS colonel who was close to figuring out the landing of the US troops in Normandy. To execute this mission, Desfontaines teams up with four women agents of the SEO.
The Exception (2016)
The Exception is loosely based on the real life of German Wilhelm II or at least on his last days, and his life in exile in the Netherlands. Director David Leveaux also drew his inspiration from Alan Judd’s novel The Kaiser’s Last Kiss.
The Exception is the story of German soldier Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) investigate the house of Kaiser Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer) in the Netherlands: Germany is taking over Holland, and the authorities believe that Dutch spies might be watching the Kaiser, and might even have infiltrated the house. During his investigation, Brandt meets the maid of the house, Mieke (Lily James). A romance starts between the two young people, stuck between their duties, principles and love.
Operation Finale (2018)
Operation Finale is based on the real events that took place in the 1960s , when a team of top-secret Israeli agents tracked down Adolf Eichman to Argentina. Eichman was a Nazi officer and he orchestrated the transportation logistics that brought millions of Jews to concentration camps during the Second World War.
Like many Nazis who had managed to escape after the war and hid in South America, Eichman thought he could get away and never be found. In this tense and dark thriller directed by Chris Weitz and release in 2018, Eichman is portrayed by Ben Kingsley and Oscar Isaac portrays the role of one of the spies in charge of the Nazi’s capture.
The Catcher Was A Spy (2018)
This based-on-true-events movie highlights the role of Moe Berg, a former Major League Baseball player, who became a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Berg’s mission was to discover if German physicist Werner Heisenberg was developing a fission bomb for the Nazis, and if so, Berg had order to eliminate him.
In this peculiar story of a baseball player becoming an essential spy for the US government was directed by Ben Lewin and stars Paul Rudd in the role of Moe Berg, and Mark Strong in the role of Heinsenberg. The script is based on the 1994 novel ‘’The Catcher Was A Spy’’ written by Nicholas Dawidoff.
A Call To Spy (2019)
A Call To Spy is inspired by the lives of British agents Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan, who joined the Winston Churchill’s SOE and took part to the war effort during the Second World War. Together, the women of the SOE disrupted the Nazi regime in France (this is the same organization ‘’The White Mouse’’, Nancy Wake joined, which we discussed previously in this article.)
Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, the movie stars Stana Katic, Sarah Megan Thomas and Radhika Apte who respectfully portrayed Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan. Vera Atkins, the famous spymaster, investigated the death of the female agents, or "her girls" as she called them, during the war. For the rest of her life, she made sure that her agents were honored, until her death in 2000.