5 Essential Team-Up Movies To See Before The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Henry Cavill will soon be heading into tumultuous seas with "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" behind him. Guy Ritchie's upcoming World War II action movie tells the true story of a band of soldiers led by Cavill's Gus March-Phillips, who go behind enemy lines to cause some trouble for the Nazi regime with nothing but themselves to depend on and the rather mad tactics they employ to get the job done.
From a director who has thrived at bringing an eclectic band of characters to the screen with the likes of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatch," and most recently, "The Gentleman," this is Ritchie bringing another great team to life and seeing what chaos can be caused. However, hold fire for now, soldier. Before you get acquainted with Henry Cavill and the cast of "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," it might be worth taking time to see some essential team-up movies.
Like your missions of the do-or-die variety? Want to see team building of a band of misfits who don't stand a chance apart but are better together? Well, here is a quintet of essential action-packed entries that work from the similar battle-beaten playbook used by "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." Ready yourselves for some classic big-screen carnage that never gets old and potentially having some iconic theme tunes stuck in your head for the next week or so. Hey, no brave deed came without sacrifice.
The Magnificent Seven remade a classic and became a classic of its own
While we warm our hands against the boiling outrage of film fans who can't see Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" on this list, please direct yourselves to the Westernized remake from 1960, "The Magnificent Seven." A personal recommendation from "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who loves Guy Ritchie movies (albeit for a slightly dark reason), John Sturges' classic Western sees stars like Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn team up to fend off some bandits terrorizing a town of farmers that aren't looking for a fight.
After six-plus decades, seeing Brynner as Chris Adams rounding up a gang of guns (and knives) for hire is still as hair-raising as it's ever been. The movie also became a blueprint that Sturges would replicate for a bunch more films in the years that followed (some of which even made this list).
Even decades later, any story from the big or small screen that spends time "getting a team together" perhaps has Sturges to thank as much as Kurosawa. Sure, the latter legendary director started it, but Sturges does a brilliant job with "The Magnificent Seven" of not only translating the story for Western audiences but proving even back then that a tale can be retold the right way. Should you ever find yourself discussing "films not needing to be remade," here are seven solid reasons why they can be.
Black Hawk Down is an overlooked do-or-die mission
We now go from a film recommended by Jerry Bruckheimer to a brutal but brilliantly overlooked team-up movie that he produced himself. Standing as one of the biggest Ridley Scott movies of all time, "Black Hawk Down" tells the true story of the Black Hawk helicopters shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 and the rescue mission that became a 15-hour battle for survival. Loaded with a cast of both already-established stars (Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Eric Bana) and stars in the making (Tom Hardy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Jeremy Piven), Scott's modern-day war movie is an, at times, harrowing watch but also includes a handful of team-up movies in one.
Through Scott's expert battlefield mapping, we find ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder with groups outnumbered and dotted across the warzone, all aiming to make it out alive. Whereas some movies wait for the final act to show the last stand, here, the director gives us several that span the majority of the film. There's no signature team assembly as with other entries on this list. Instead, Scott throws us into the thick of it as soon as the mission goes sideways, dragging us through this journey.
Not only does it make for an entertaining and enthralling do-or-die mission, but it also encapsulates the essential ingredient of brotherhood and sticking together. To quote Bana's Hoot, "They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is."
The Great Escape captures everything great about a team-up movie
Steve McQueen might be the frontman for John Sturges' other team-up title, but while he's playing catch in the cooler, the supporting cast is giving it their all in what's ranked as one of the best prison movies of all time. Based on the true story of a mass escape from Stalag Luft III during WWII, "The Great Escape" reunites McQueen with Charles Bronson and James Coburn, this time as POWs who play their part in the construction of underground tunnels dubbed Tom, Dick, and Harry. In fact, throw a pile of carefully smuggled dirt in any direction, and you're guaranteed to hit incredible talent at the time, including James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Richard Attenborough, and David McCallum, who all break out in a film now riddled with iconic moments.
Carrying a charm that hasn't faded since its debut in 1963, "The Great Escape" will always have audiences urging either that "good luck" goes ignored, that a bus doesn't stop for a cigarette break, or that after all those hills, Steve McQueen can still make that one last jump. It also has what might be one of the most memorable scores in movie history, which, like its core cast, digs in deep and takes forever to break free from your ears. As daring ensemble entries go, "The Great Escape" is essential.
Inglourious Basterds features the most brutal ragtag team in recent movie history
Now, let's go from one epic do-or-die mission to a film it inspired. When making "Inglourious Basterds," director Quentin Tarantino deemed "The Great Escape" the touchstone for his tale set once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France. Speaking to the Pioneer Press, the director praised the past while looking to his future, saying that in regard to Sturges' film, "That's one of the most entertaining movies ever made and was kind of the touchstone goal for ["Inglourious Basterds"] to one degree or another. ... Make a World War II movie that's just entertaining, that you just enjoy watching the movie."
There's no doubt that he certainly achieved his goal with his star-studded story rife with revenge, brutal executions, and poorly ordered rounds of drinks. Littered with a few more F-bombs than "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," Tarantino's war movie is easily worthy of sitting among the tremendous ragtag outings that came before it. It might change history with the demise of a particular historical tyrant getting his head riddled with bullets, but it wouldn't have happened at all without the help of the brilliant Basterds, who were at the top of their game in the Nazi-killing business.
The Wild Bunch are still firing on all cylinders
Besides being one of the greatest Westerns ever made, Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" is one hell of an ensemble effort from stars breathing life into a motley crew of gunslingers who are on their last few rounds. It's an anti-heroic last stand that has you hoping the bad guys get away, even with trust among the group being tested and things ending in a horrifically brutal rescue mission. Whereas "The Magnificent Seven" was the polished, slightly softer ensemble piece about gunslingers holding the line, Peckinpah's 1969 classic is a jaw-dropping, squib-splashing shoot-'em-up that ends in one of the greatest eye-watering gunfights in history.
Like all the films on this list, "The Wild Bunch" works wonders because of the cast that makes up the titular team. These worn-down outlaws thrive with iconic talent, including Ernest Borgnine, William Holden, and Robert Ryan, all going hell-bent on leather in Peckinpah's visceral, slow-motion-riddled romp that the American Film Institution ranks as one of the greatest of its genre. As far as ungentlemanly gentlemen go, "The Wild Bunch" is certainly up there, but that makes them one of the greatest ragtag groups ever to shoot up the screen.