The Monuments Men Review

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2014)

My Thoughts: I have to start off with saying I did not really know what to expect from this movie when I went into it last night. It seems lately that Hollywood loves to do the "based on a true story, but we are going to change that story to make it fit with our Hollywood endings and not really give you the historical aspect that you are probably really looking for." Meaning, Hollywood doesn't think you can handle the real, true story, so they change it just enough to make it a happy movie.
I say that because The Monuments Men is that kind of movie in my opinion. While leaving the theater last night, there were mixed feelings about this movie. Overall, everyone seemed to enjoy it, though they didn't hate it or love it. Some of the comments overheard was that the pacing of the movie was slow, and they were not wrong. This is not your average, fast-paced, action-packed World War II movie. This movie takes the approach of giving you a high overview of what these "Monument Men" went through during the end of WWII, and it seems to be a bit jumpy as it moves from month to month, location to location. I understand why this happened, though; with this movie coming in at just under two hours, if they went any deeper into the happenings of the Monument Men, we would have to bring back the intermission from yesteryear. To me, this was not a problem; I understood there was just too much information and they had to give it to you in a way that wouldn't make you lose interest.
The second comment I heard was that it wasn't as dark as some people thought it could have been. What people are talking about is the atrocities we know that the Nazis committed against those they subjugated; specifically, the Jews. And I understand what the movie was trying to do here, or at least, I think I do. I do not believe that we need to focus on these atrocities in every WWII movie. What one should not forget while watching this movie is where all this art came from. Yes, some of it came from museums and churches, but a lot of it came from personal collections. The movie does give nods to this, but they do not slam it in your face, and I am fine with that. This movie was about them getting this art back and trying to return it to their rightful owners.
So what are we getting in this movie? We start off Frank Stokes (George Clooney) giving a briefing to the President, informing him that priceless artifacts are being destroyed and need to be protected. It seems that the President gives his approval to go ahead and form this squad of men, but they do not seem to want to put any power behind it. He will not give any young men this job due to the fact that they are all already overseas fighting the good fight, so Frank has to go around and recruit is older associates that are either too old for active duty or have some medical condition that kept them from joining. The other reason I say they did not get the support at the beginning of this mission is because of the ranks that they were given. Maybe this was better explained in the book, but I do not know. Frank and James Granger (Matt Damon) were given lieutenant ranks in the US Army and Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) and Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) were given officer ranks in their respectful armies; everyone else was given enlisted rank. Now, the issue comes into play when an LT is telling a Colonel that he and his boys can't bomb, attack, or destroy something due to its historical value. One, the Colonel doesn't care about that; he wants to make sure his boys aren't put into harms way as much as he can. So, if the President was really behind this mission, he would have given Frank the rank of Colonel and made everyone else junior officers.
But we see the Monument Men going from one region to the next, trying to find out where the Germans are taking all this art. And let me tell you, I had heard that the Nazis stole art during WWII, but I had no idea how many pieces we were talking about. In the movie, at least, it looks like they had four to five mines plus a castle all full of art.
We also have the Germans who are stealing this art while they are retreating back to Germany. Oh, and do not forget the Nero Decree that Hitler put into effect. The Nero Decree was if Adolf Hitler was killed, everything was to be destroyed, including all the art that was being collected. We also have the Russians who have decided that for payment of all the deaths the Nazis caused in their country, that any art recovered will be sent back to the Motherland. So, the Monument Men's job doubles: find the stolen art and save what they can before the Russians find it.
My Recommendation: If you are looking for a different take on World War II, this is a good movie for you. For the rest that have a passing interesting or think the cast is great should wait till it comes out on DVD and Blu Ray.