Grow up Clooney, this was no joking matter

Rating: 3/10 (18 February 2014)

I deleted my first review when I realized that I was a victim of propaganda and wrong information and that the movie with its shallow entertainment value had lulled me into believing that it was actually entertaining. But as an artist the subject was too important to me and I revisited the documentary "The rape of Europe" and read everything else I could find about the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives-Section (MFA&A) and the people involved to refresh my memory and as I did so, the more dissatisfied I became with the movie. First of all the primary goal of the organization was to protect historical buildings from the bombardment of the Allies. As reality and the movie showed the Monument Men were not very successful to convince the military men not to bomb irreplaceable buildings in Italy or Germany. Just think of Leonardo da Vinci's painting in the monastery near Milan which miraculously survived the bombardment and the Campodisanto in Pisa, which is still being restored nearly seventy years later. but many of the frescos which date back to 1300 are lost forever. Not to speak about Germany where entire cities with all their beautiful buildings were flattened. .
The other goal of the organization was to make sure that cultural treasures would not be looted by the victors, as it had been a tradition in any war since ever. The art historians realized that many soldiers had no idea about the value of art or furniture and would use it to build fires to keep themselves warm. The wonderful idea of the MFA&A was to think that even if the government of a country commits unspeakable acts, that the people of this country are still entitled to their cultural heritage and that it is an important part of rebuilding a country to leave the cultural heritage in that country..
Another misrepresentation in the movie is that it gives the impression that all the art they found in the mines and castles were stolen by the Nazis. In reality Germany had her own program to protect the art and the museums themselves made sure that the art was transported into safe locations like mines and private homes for preservation. So for example the salt mine in Merkers. Everything stored there was stored by mostly Berlin museums to protect it from bombardment. Obviously the conditions in a salt mine are favorable for art . None of it was stolen by Nazis and the German museum people knew exactly where it was and would have recuperated it after the war and put it back in the museums.
In the last decade or so there were a few movies made about the Nazi time which were really thoughtful and do not paint a black and white picture, i.e. Americans or Allies all good, Germans all bad. Clooney made a cheap movie in the sense that he did not pay homage to the real achievement of the Monument men but instead plays the usual game of portraying the Americans as the good guys, conveniently he kills off the British and French Monument men early in the movie and does not mention that altogether there were over 300 people from different countries involved. He gives the impression that it was an all American venture.
The character Cate Blanchett plays had a real important role in finding a lot of the art, but in his movie she is more or less reduced to a love interest for Matt Damon. I went to see a few of Clooney's movies because I was interested in the subject matters he chooses and nearly always I was disappointed. He picks good subjects but does not deliver. His movies have no depth, most of them are forgettable. I also do not think that he can act. He always plays himself and while joking with his friends is okay when he goes on the talk show circuit, this movie was not the right forum for pranks.
In the documentary The Rape of Europe one of the professors in Austria deliberates what would have happened if the Viennese art school would not have rejected Hitler twice. Maybe we would live in a different world today. Maybe Hitler would have learned to appreciate modern art and would not have destroyed it as degenerate. Who knows?
The question if art is worth to endanger you life to save it, is a personal question. It is for me, I would never go to war because my government decides to fight another country because the representatives are financed by the armament industry, but I would participate in a mission to save art even if it is dangerous.