Movie Review: The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men 

Columbia Pictures, Fox 2000 Pictures, Smokehouse Pictures, Obelisk Productions, Studio Babelsberg, USA, Germany, 2014. 

March 1943. The Nazis are stealing art from all over Europe to be exhibited in Führer Museum. In Paris Secretary Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett) working for SS Officer Viktor Stahl (Justus von Dohnányi) secretly provides the French Resistance with information about the stolen paintings. 

Frank Stokes

Claire Simone

Professor Frank Stokes (George Clooney) struggles to save the cultural heritage. Group of art scholars are recruited to form a special group The Monuments Men. Stokes and Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) recruit James Granger (Matt Damon), architect Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), sculptor Walter Garfield (John Goodman), Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) and Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban). Also German-born Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas) joins the group. Their mission is to retrieve stolen art and mark historically important buildings so that they will not be bombed by the Allied Forces. 

Walter Garfield

Monuments Men briefing

Nazi art stash

In July 1944 the group arrives in Normandy. Stokes finds a truckload of stolen art. Granger travels to Paris alone as a secret agent. He meets Claire who is in jail for collaborating with the Germans. Granger tries to track down the rightful owners with help from Claire. However the Russians are nearing and also stealing art. When Jeffries gets killed while trying to save Michelangelo's Madonna sculpture, Stokes feels obliged to retrieve it. Then Hitler gives Nero Decree to destroy all art if Germany loses the war. 

The story is loosely based on true events and shows a less known aspect of the World War II. The films tries to mimic the style of classic lightweight war adventures and it never gets very violent. The film feels poorly structured as the story makes jumps without explanations and splits the group just as the action should begin. The various characters suffer from poor characterization and the story never picks up or gets very exciting. The good actors feel underused. Of course George Clooney is the solemn leader, Bill Murray brings some comedy and emotional depth and John Goodman plays similar jovial character as always, but rest of the cast goes mainly unnoticed. However the film makes an important point about preserving cultural treasures and honours the men who fought to save them. A message that is again topical at the time when Daesh and Taliban terrorists are destroying ancient statues and temples in the Middle East, destroying also the legacy of their own ancestors. 

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#35. Movie whose director's name has the same initial letters as you, blogger name that is!) 

Rating: Average

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban, Dimitri Leonidas, Justus von Dohnányi, Holger Handtke, Michael Hofland, Zachary Baharov, Michael Brandner, Sam Hazeldine, Miles Jupp, Alexandre Desplat, Diarmaid Murtagh, Serge Hazanavicius, Luc Feit, Emil von Schönfels, Udo Kroschwald, Aurélia Poirier, Grant Heslov, Matthew Maguire, Michael Dalton, Christian Rodska, Stefan Kolosko, Thomas Wingrich, Oliver Devoti, James Payton, Lucas Tavernier, Oscar Copp, Luciana Castellucci, Declan Mills, Richard Crehan, Corin Stuart, André Hinderlich, Maximilian Seidel, Marcel Mols, Matt Rippy, John Dagleish, Andrew Byron, Nicolas Heidrich, Aidan Sharp, Xavier Laurent, Ben-Ryan Davies, Nick Clooney, Joel Basman, Andrew Alexander, Adrian Bouchet, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Joe Reynolds, Levi Strasser, Piet Paes, Audrey Marnay, Nora Sagal, Avery June Jones, James Audrey Jones 

Director: George Clooney