The Monuments Men
| The Monuments Men | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | George Clooney |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Phedon Papamichael |
| Editing by | Stephen Mirrione |
| Studio | |
| Distributed by |
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| Release dates |
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| Running time | 118 minutes[1] |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $70 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $84,256,960[3] |
The Monuments Men is a 2014 American-German war film directed by George Clooney, written and produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and starring Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett. Based on the non-fiction book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert M. Edsel, the film follows an allied group, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, tasked with finding and saving pieces of art and other culturally important items before their destruction by Hitler during World War II.[4][5]
The film, co-produced by Columbia Pictures (in association with 20th Century Fox) and Babelsberg Studio, was released on February 7, 2014.[6][7]
Contents
[show]Story[edit]
In 1943 during World War II, the Allies are making good progress driving back the Axis powers in Italy. However, Frank Stokes (George Clooney) persuades the US President that victory will have little meaning if the art treasures of Western civilization are lost in the fighting, either as collateral damage in combat or looted. To minimize that threat, Stokes is directed to assemble an Army unit nicknamed the "Monuments Men" comprising seven museum directors, curators, and art historians to both guide Allied units and search for stolen art to return it to the rightful owners.
In occupied France, Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett), a curator in Paris, is forced to allow Nazi officers like Viktor Stahl to oversee the theft of art for either Adolf Hitler's proposed Führermuseum in Linz, or as the personal property of senior commanders like Herman Goering. While she is nearly arrested for helping her Maquis brother unsuccessfully recapture such items, all seems lost when she discovers that Stahl is taking all of her gallery's contents to Germany as the Allies approach Paris. When she runs to the railyard to confront Stahl, he fires on her with his pistol; although she does not seek cover, she is not hit, but can only watch helplessly as Stahl escapes with the stolen artwork.
As for Stokes' unit, they find their work is frustrated by their own side's combat units who refuse to restrict their tactical options for the sake of preserving architecture, while James Granger (Matt Damon) finds that Simone will not cooperate with those whom she suspects are art looters themselves. The unit splits up for various objectives with varying degrees of success. Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) of the British Army attempts to arrange the safety of a Belgian church with valuable artwork and is killed attempting to prevent the Nazi Colonel Wegner from stealing a statue of the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo.
Richard Campbell (Bill Murray) and Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban) attempt to track down a stolen Belgian panel set of religious artwork (the Van Eyck altarpiece looted from Ghent cathedral), and in doing so, find and arrest Viktor Stahl, hiding as a farmer, when they identify the paintings in his house as originals stolen from the Rothschild Collection. Walter Garfield (John Goodman) and Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) are caught in a crossfire of a battle and Clermont is mortally wounded. Meanwhile, Simone reconsiders when Granger shows her the Nero Decree to destroy all German possessions if Hitler dies or Germany falls, and when she sees Granger return a painting looted from a Jewish family murdered in the death camps to its rightful place as a symbolic gesture. Realizing the Americans are serious in their intentions, she eventually provides a comprehensive ledger that provides valuable information to identify stolen art.
Even as the team learn that the artwork is being stored in various mines and castles, they also learn that they must now compete against the Soviet Union who have units of their own seizing artwork as war reparations. Meanwhile, Colonel Wegner is systematically removing and destroying whole art collections as per orders. Eventually, the team have some success as they discover at least one mine with over 16,000 art pieces as well as grotesque caches as barrels of gold teeth from victims of the death camps. In addition, they also discover gold assets of the Nazi German national treasury, whose capture effectively bankrupts the regime.
Finally, they find a German mine that seems destroyed and is in what will be part of the Soviet occupation zone. However, the team discover that only the entrances were damaged by the locals in order to fool the Nazis and they manage to gain entry even as their fellows delay the oncoming Soviets. As a result, the team evacuate as much artwork as possible, including the sculpture Jeffries died defending, before the Soviets arrive.
Finally, Stokes reports to President Truman that they have recovered vast quantities of artwork and various other culturally significant items. As he requests to stay in Europe to oversee further searching and restoration, Truman asks if his efforts were worth it. Stokes firmly replies it was.
Decades later, the elderly Stokes (Nick Clooney) takes his grandson to see Michelangelo's Madonna sculpture, amid large crowds of youth appreciating the pieces of humanity's creativity that his men sacrificed so much to preserve in war.
Cast[edit]
- George Clooney as Lt. Frank Stokes, loosely based on George L. Stout
- Nick Clooney plays the aged Stokes in the film's final scene.
- Matt Damon as Lt. James Granger, loosely based on James Rorimer
- Bill Murray as Sgt. Richard Campbell, loosely based on Robert K. Posey
- John Goodman as Sgt. Walter Garfield, loosely based on Walker Hancock
- Jean Dujardin as Lt. Jean Claude Clermont
- Bob Balaban as Pvt. Preston Savitz, loosely based on Lincoln Kirstein
- Hugh Bonneville as Lt. Donald Jeffries, loosely based on Ronald E. Balfour
- Cate Blanchett as Claire Simone, loosely based on Rose Valland
- Sam Hazeldine as Colonel Langton
- Dimitri Leonidas as Sam Epstein, loosely based on Harry L. Ettlinger
Production[edit]
Principal photography began in early March 2013 at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, Germany, and in the Berlin-Brandenburg region and the Harz, where the Town of Osterwieck was a particularly important place for the outdoor scenes. A cast of thousands was needed for the military scenes.[8][9] Some of the scenes, including flights and American war base footage, were filmed at Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK.[10][11]
Filming was scheduled to last until the end of June 2013, wrapping up in Rye, East Sussex.[6]
Release[edit]
The film was originally set to be released on December 18, 2013.[12] A trailer was released on August 8, 2013.[13] on October 22, 2013, the film was pushed back to an unspecified date in February 2014, because post-production was taking longer than expected due to issues balancing humor with the serious nature of the subject matter.[14][15] on October 24, 2013, it was announced that the film would screen on February 7, 2014 at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.[16][17]
Reception[edit]
The Monuments Men has received mixed to negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 34% rating, with an average score of 5.2/10, based on 193 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Its intentions are noble and its cast is impressive, but neither can compensate for The Monuments Men's stiffly nostalgic tone and curiously slack narrative."[18] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 out of 100, based on 41 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19]
Film critic Steve Pulaski of Influx Magazine gave the film a middling C- grade and stated, "The Monuments Men is a historical comedy-drama with a very intriguing history, but comedy that isn’t funny and drama that isn’t always interesting."[20] Historian Alex von Tunzelmann, writing for The Guardian noted several historical faults, and said of the plot "If you're getting the sense that the film is episodic and poorly structured, unfortunately you'd be right", and "There are far too many characters, so the screenplay splits them up into little groups and sends them off on various errands. Some of these are more exciting than others – but they do not add up to a satisfying plot. A TV series might have been a better vehicle for the "monuments men" stories than a feature film... The story is fascinating, but this film's good intentions are hampered by its lack of pace, direction, tone and properly fleshed-out characters."[21]
In its review Spanish newspaper La Razón says The Monuments Men follows the model of a "Hollywood war propaganda" movie.[22]
Historical Accuracy[edit]
Dr Nigel Pollard from Swansea University awarded the film two stars for historical accuracy. Reviewing the film for History Extra, the website of BBC History Magazine, Pollard wrote[23] : "There’s a kernel of history there, but The Monuments Men plays fast and loose with it in ways that are probably necessary to make the story work as a film, but the viewer ends up with a fairly confused notion of what the organisation [the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives programme (MFAA)] was, and what it achieved.
"The real organisation was never a big one (a few dozen officers at most), but the film reduces it to just seven men to personalise the hunt for the looted art: five Americans, one British officer (Hugh Bonneville) and a Free French officer, marginalising the British role in the establishment of the organisation. This is presented as set up at Clooney’s initiative after the bombing of Monte Cassino (so, after February 1944). In fact, its origins actually went back to British efforts in Libya in 1942, and it already existed (albeit with teething troubles) when the Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943.
"Much of its actual role related to safeguarding sites in Allied-occupied areas, advising Allied air and ground forces on how to avoid damage to cultural sites in war zones, and first-aid conservation of damaged structures – but these tasks get short shrift in the film, which focuses instead on the more exciting hunt for the looted artworks."
See also[edit]
- Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program
- The Train (1964 film)
- Is Paris Burning? (1966 film)
- The Rape of Europa (1994 novel and 2006 documentary film)
- Rescuing Da Vinci (2006 book)
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