The Monuments Men

The Art of War

I'm a day later than usual with a review and the reason is I was hanging out with some family yesterday.  I went to my sister's for dinner and I mentioned that I was thinking about going to see The Monuments Men in the morning to review for the blog.  She asked me which movie that was and my brief description was something about it being set in World War 2 and it stars George Clooney and Matt Damon.  She suddenly seemed to know which movie I was talking about and proceeded to say something like, "Right, and they have to pull off some kind of heist?"  Apparently every movie with Clooney and Damon is an Ocean's movie.  We had a good laugh about that.

I thought we were robbing a casi... No?

It brings up a good point about his movie, tho.  Maybe some of the bigger history buffs already knew, but I had never heard of the story about these guys.  The Monuments Men is based on the true story of a group of art experts and collectors whose job it was to go to Europe to find and protect works of art.  Up until recently, I had no idea it was a true story.  When I started seeing advertisements, I thought it looked like an interesting movie that would take you through the War, but it really is so much more than that.  

This week I think I can talk about the movie without giving away too many spoiler.  The movie really takes you into World War 2.  Clooney manages to get permission to put a team together to locate and protect art for the sake of preserving culture.  All of the young guys are already over there so he assembles a team of older gents the likes of Bill Murray and John Goodman.

This'll get him ready to finally get that damn gopher.

Basically the story is the search for where the Nazis are hiding the art that they have stolen and are storing until Hitler's "Fuhrer's Museum" can be built.  Starting at Normandy Beach (after the invasion), going into France, and into Germany they pass a few major events/locations like The Battle of the Bulge.  Sure there are some funny moments, and the characters have some quirks that lighten it up, but the story is ultimately serious and becomes really gripping.

I wish I had known something about these guys before.  Even with the knowledge that they were expected to fail, they took their jobs seriously.  A couple even gave their lives for the cause of protecting the works of art and that really got me pulling for them.  You begin to love each one of them and admire what they are doing.  The mission becomes even more personal after one of their own is killed trying to protect a statue and they want to find it in his honor.

So overall, this was an excellent movie.  If you are into history at all, particularly WW2, this is perfect for you.  Even if you aren't, you'll learn a little bit and the story itself will pull you in.  Actually, this could have been fiction and it would still be an enjoyable movie.  It's just that much better because these people existed and actually DID these things.  It has a great cast and I just can't say enough about the characters they portray.  You just can't help but root for them all the way.  Knowing that we all don't speak German right now, you can imagine that the ending of the movie is a happy one.

Let's get Brad and head to Vegas.