Director: Matthew Vaughan
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Charles Dance, Rhys Ifans, Daniel Bruel, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Alexander Shaw, Valerie Pachner, Ron Cook, Alison Steadman, August Diehl, David Kross, Stanley Tucci
Distributor: Disney / Fox
Runtime: 131 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Strong violence

A very British action adventure: Boer War, World War I, Rasputin and Russia, world conspiracies – and some serious moments in the Western Front trenches.

If you saw the previous two adventures focusing on The Kingsman and the Saville Row gentlemen’s shop which covers the behind-the-scenes espionage and action, the prospect of watching a film about the origins of this organisation is probably top of your list. Whether it stays at the top is another matter.

However, there is a lot to entertain and a lot of action. In fact, there is a lot of early 20th century history and World War I. But, it is a mix-and-match of all kinds of ingredients – serious, humorous, satirical, and many, many, far-fetched and beyond.

The tone is set in a prologue during the Boer War, with the visit by the Duke of Oxford (Fiennes), his wife and son, representing the Red Cross, to a concentration camp, managed by General Kitchener (Dance). There is a sniper outside the camp with dire consequences for the Duke.

So far, so interesting. Twelve years later we are on the eve of World War I with plots to plunge Europe into war. We have seen the three cousins, grandsons of Queen Victoria, who will later go on to be the German Kaiser Wilhem, Russian Tsar Nicholas, and English King George V play well together when they are young. Hostilities, however, have set in as they grow older. Hollander now plays all three monarchs – the Kaiser rather idiotic, the Tsar under the influence of Rasputin (Ifans), and George V as very, very serious.

The first task is to protect Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Cook) which means the Duke of Oxford and his son Conrad (Dickinson), now 18 and eager to flex his muscles and move from his father’s over-protectiveness, travelling to Sarajevo, at first saving the grand Duke, but ultimately failing.

The screenplay then reveals to us that there was a huge mastermind behind this plot, and an aspirant to world power. On an elevated rock, where special goats graze, lives The Shepherd – not seen fully by the audience until the end, hearing only his Scots accent and his vehemence against British persecution of Scotland. He has a group of international agents assembled, sending them out to do dastardly deeds and provoke the war.

So, a shift from some serious history and upper-class Brits, to a James Bondish approach to World War I. Then, unexpectedly, there comes a kind of pantomime intermission focusing on Rasputin, and some by-play about Polly (Arterton), the family nanny, who in fact, along with Shiloh, the African servant and companion from Boer War days, (Djimon Hounsou) forming a behind-the-scenes network of servants around the world who gather and communicate political information.

Suddenly, there is an ultra-serious sequence on the Western front and some moving moments.

The climax is mainly on the Shepherd’s eerie, all kinds of derring-do (and, noticing that Ralph Fiennes has a personal trainer listed in the final credits), some tampering with history concerning Woodrow Wilson and America’s entry into the war, some Mata Hari intrigue, and indications that they will could be more to come.