Two of the most impactful film and TV events of 2024 take us back in time to World War II. Following hot on the heels of Tom Cruise almost single-handedly keeping the box office alive with Top Gun: Maverick, Steven Spielberg pulls out the same playbook he used for the seminal shows Band of Brothers and The Pacific to bring Masters of the Air to Apple TV.
Meanwhile, British director Guy Ritchie keeps his winning streak alive with an adaptation of author Giles Milton's captivating Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which recounts how a ragtag band of renegade Special Forces helped defeat the Nazis. Beyond the fine acting and production, both hold some key lessons about ethics, problem-solving, and purpose that you can apply in business and life. Let's break them down.
1) Stick to Your Values
While the pilots of the 100th Bomb Group get top billing in Masters of the Air and most of the action-packed scenes, they would literally be lost without their backseat navigators (who would later become known as RIOs – Radar Intercept Officers – like Goose in Top Gun). One of the most prominent in Spielberg’s ambitious adaptation of Donald L. Miller’s 2006 book is Major Harry Crosby. While he unfortunately suffered from airsickness while navigating a safe course for his B-17 Flying Fortress, Crosby had no qualms when it came to ensuring his moral compass stayed pointing in the right direction.
There are several scenes in Masters of the Air that explore the unique dilemmas that war presents to its participants. As he sees more and more planes in his squadron getting shot down and other flyers getting sent home wounded, Crosby starts to consider that he might end up being one of the few to get out of the war unscathed and get back to his wife and child. But what compromises will he be willing to make to get to that point?
“It reminds me of this quote I read in college from Nietzsche," Crosby told a colleague. “Whoever fights monsters should take care not to become a monster himself. Because if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes right back at you.”
Crosby stuck to his principles and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal, and Croix de Guerre for his brave service. He did make it home alive. Once back in America, he pursued his passion for teaching at Boston University and Harvard and helped develop the curriculum at the Air Force Academy, continuing to live out his values in peacetime.
2) Empower Mavericks to Find New Solutions
While the kind of overwhelming air power demonstrated in Masters of the Air and huge conventional land forces were needed to turn the tide against the Axis powers in World War II, Allied leaders like Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill recognized that beating Hitler and his cronies would also take unexpected action from small units skilled in unconventional tactics. That’s why the British Prime Minister authorized Hugh Dalton to establish Section D, which he described as a “ministry of ungentlemanly warfare.”
In his rip-roaring book that inspired Guy Ritchie’s film, author Giles Milton describes how this new, under-the-radar group wasn’t staffed by distinguished and long-serving soldiers but by a ragtag band of outsiders from all walks of life. One of the most entertaining characters enlisted for the unlikely endeavor of sabotaging the Nazis with guerilla warfare was Cecil Clarke.
Millis Jefferis worked for Churchill’s top secret new department. The German Navy was blowing up far more American and British ships than the Allies, and Jefferis was given the task of creating a more effective mine to retaliate. He met with Stuart Macrae, the editor of Armchair Science magazine to discuss the powerful magnets featured in a recent issue and ask if he knew of anyone who could apply this technology for his purposes.
Macrae had befriended Clarke through a previous magazine. When he described a man who invented new suspension systems for caravans and tinkered with all manner of inventions like the title character from Wallace and Gromit, Jefferis was skeptical. But once he met the eccentric inventor and toured his workshop, he knew he’d found the right man for the job.
In Clarke’s hometown of Bedford, they bought high-powered magnets from a hardware store and tin plates from Woolworths. Clarke added a few more makeshift parts and used porridge instead of blasting gelatin, aniseed ball candy that triggered detonation after it slowly dissolved, and – of all things – a condom to cover the trigger mechanism.
Though more iterations were needed, this unlikely duo had created a successful prototype of the limpet mine, which would sink many Axis ships and continue to be used by Special Forces for many years. This shows how creating successful teams requires recruiting talented individuals who might be outside the mainstream and empowering them to put their unorthodox ideas into practice.
3) Remember What You’re Fighting For
Though Masters of the Air focuses on a group of American aviators and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare concentrates on British Commandos/spies, both have a common thread outside of their World War II setting. Their characters know that no matter how hard things get, they must persevere for the greater good and keep fighting to defend liberty, freedom, and democracy.
In Masters of the Air, Major “Rosie” Rosenthal’s Flying Fortress is detected by the enemy and ridden with bullets. Even when part of the plane bursts into flames, he maintains a steady course until his crew can parachute to safety. Later, Major John “Bucky” Egan helps his fellow pilots and navigators escape from a German prisoner of war camp by creating a diversion that sends the guards in the wrong direction and could have got him killed. When the camp is liberated by the U.S. Army, he somehow finds a captured American flag and raises the Stars and Stripes high to symbolize what they’d all fought so hard for.
The renegades in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare have a similar sense of solidarity and duty and were willing to pay the ultimate price to defend their comrades and homeland. While the film version shows the bow and arrow wielding Major Anders Lassen leading a successful mission to steal Nazi cargo ships, his war didn’t end so well. The man played with aplomb by Alan Ritchson attacked a German machine gun nest near Italy’s Lake Comacchio in April 1945. He killed eight enemy soldiers, caused two more to surrender, and silenced six machine guns, but was cut down by enemy fire. His ultimate sacrifice allowed the rest of his patrol to survive.
You might not be fighting for your country, but you’ll have a greater chance of success if you know what you’re striving toward and who you’re doing it for. It will also help if you can look to your left and right and see people who are similarly dedicated to a common goal and each other. In any endeavor, loyalty and purpose go a long way.