The Monuments Men Could Have Been Better

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2014)

The Monuments Men is a war film that is loosely based on the non-fiction book entitled The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History which was written by Robert M. Edsel. It stars George Clooney and Matt Damon together with Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett. The story is about the Monuments Men,an Allied group of soldiers that is assigned of finding and gathering the pieces of art and other culturally important items that were stolen by the Nazis.They are running against time as Adolph Hitler intends its destruction during World War II.It was produced,written and directed by Clooney.
The Monuments Men is unlikely Allied group platoon.They were tasked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to rescue missing art masterpieces from Nazi thieves at Germany to be able to return them to their rightful owners.It was deemed to be an impossible mission as they are trapped behind enemy lines and were ordered to be destroyed by Hitler.Added to that,the men are only made up of seven museum directors, curators, and art historians.Will they succeed in doing it at the end?
The movie has an interesting premise as we get to see another Allied group with an unlikely mission.Also,we have a talented cast starring in it.Unfortunately,the screenplay needs a lot of improvement as it was both sluggish and uneven.The viewer would find it confusing too on what its tone whether it is a drama,comedy,action,a war film or a character- driven film as well as it became somewhat more about the men in the group rather than their mission.With this tonal confusion,one may find it boring too as there seems to be a lack of urgency among the group to recover the missing art masterpieces as soon as possible. The only thing that I like is the commitment of the characters and the theme of the movie of providing importance to the arts the defined man's thousand of years of of culture and the preservation of their greatest achievements.Finally,it also provided the viewer some lessons in art history. It was just too bad that the movie cold have been better if the screenplay was written better.