“Invoking” and “emotional” are not two words you would usually think about when watching a film about stealing precious art and World War II, yet with Monuments Men, they come to mind.
Monuments Men is a 2014 American-German war film released on Feb. 7, 2014 starring Academy Award winner George Clooney, who also co-wrote the film and directed it. Bourne Identity’s Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Bob Baladan, John Goodman and Hugh Bonneville also join the cast starring as the “Monuments Men,” a team charged with finding and saving pieces of art and various culturally important items before their destruction by Hitler.
After a flash of different paintings, the film quickly opens up with Frank Stokes, played by Clooney, trying to persuade the U.S. president that, despite the Allied forces making advances, victory will have little meaning if the culture and history that built up a civilization as a whole are destroyed. After successfully convincing the president, Stokes is charged with assembling a seemingly mismatched seven-person team of art historians and curators to accomplish their assigned asks.
Monuments Men is based on a non-fiction book by Robert M. Edsel and follows the “Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program,” an army unit that, just like their movie counterparts, are charged with searching for and safeguarding cultural and historic treasures from war damage or theft. The film shows the historic events these men were involved in as a springboard for what happens during the film, taking several creative liberties with the personnel and who was actually involved.
The film’s primary strength throughout is that it never seems to lag or run slow for audiences. The pacing of each scene is well-timed and even more relaxed, slower scenes keep the audiences involved. There is also a lot of emotional appeal and character development throughout the film.
For instance, at one point, we see the barrels of gold teeth pulled from dead Jewish victims or when we hear one of the character’s grandchildren singing “White Christmas” on a record while at the same time we see an unknown solider suffering from his obviously fatal wounds, we are reminded of the humanity of the people we are seeing. We are reminded how they are not just soldiers or victims, but people with a story that, like the art the characters are saving, must be treasured as well.
That said, a detriment that brings Monuments Men down from a higher score are a few scenes in the film that don’t seem to have any particular relevance. At one point, Granger, played by Matt Damon, accidentally steps on a mine. The characters ask him comically how he stepped on one before getting him out. However, it doesn’t seem to connect to the next scene with the characters discovering the pulled teeth of the victims of the concentration camps. This is part of an even bigger problem with the film, as it seems the film cannot pick what direction it should go at times.
For instance, the film goes back and forth between an upbeat, cheerful tone and a more somber and darker one before settling on a more permanent dark tone in the movie. In other words, there are scenes that are supposed to be funny and laid back, however the jokes often fall flat because of poor delivery or don’t match the tone of the previous or next more somber scene.
Despite these nagging flaws, is Monuments Men worth it if you haven’t gone to see it already? At nearly 2 hours, the film does manage to keep the audience involved in most of the scenes and has enough historic and emotional appeal in most parts to keep most audiences justified with the price of admission. Even if it’s just for a couple of hours, go see if you haven’t already.
