The Monuments Men

Plot synopsis:
In 1943, the Allies are making good progress driving back the Axis powers in Italy. Frank Stokes persuades the President Roosevelt that victory will have little meaning if the artistic treasures of Western civilization are lost. Stokes is directed to assemble an Army unit nicknamed the "Monuments Men," comprising museum directors, curators, art historians, and an architect, to both guide Allied units and search for stolen art to return it to its rightful owners.
Claire Simone, a curator in occupied France, is forced to assist Nazi officer Viktor Stahl in overseeing the theft of art for either Adolf Hitler's Führermuseum or as personal property of senior commanders such as Hermann Göring. All seems lost when she discovers that Stahl is taking all of her gallery's contents to Germany as the Allies approach Paris. Simone runs to the railyard to confront him, but can only watch as he departs aboard the train carrying the cargo.
Stokes' unit finds its work frustrated by Allied officers in the field, who refuse to endanger their own troops for the sake of his mission. James Granger finds that Simone will not cooperate with those whom she suspects want to confiscate the stolen art for their own country. The unit splits up to cover more ground, with varying degrees of success. British officer Donald Jeffries sneaks into occupied Bruges at night to save Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges, but is killed in the attempt.
Richard Campbell and Preston Savitz learn that Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece was removed by the priests of Ghent Cathedral for safekeeping, but their truck was stopped and the panels taken. Eventually, they find and arrest Viktor Stahl, who is hiding as a farmer, when they identify the paintings in his house as masterpieces, at least one stolen from the Rothschild Collection. Walter Garfield and Jean Claude Clermont get lost in the countryside and blunder into a firefight. Clermont is mortally wounded and dies when Garfield is unable to find medical help. Meanwhile, Simone reconsiders when Granger shows her the Nero Decree, which orders the destruction of all German possessions if Hitler dies or Germany falls, and sees him return a painting looted from a Jewish family to its rightful place in their empty home. She provides a comprehensive ledger she has compiled that provides valuable information on the stolen art and the rightful owners.
Even as the team learns that the artwork is being stored in various mines and castles, it also learns that it must now compete against the Soviet Union, which is seizing artwork as war reparations. Meanwhile, Colonel Wegner is systematically destroying whole art caches. Eventually, the team has some success, as it discovers at least one mine hiding over 16,000 art pieces. In addition, the team captures the entire gold reserves of the Nazi German national treasury.
Finally, the team finds a mine in Austria that appears to have been demolished. However, they discover that the entrances were blocked by the locals in order to prevent the Nazis from destroying the contents. The team evacuates as much artwork as possible, including the sculpture Jeffries died trying to defend, before the Soviets arrive.
Stokes reports back to President Truman that the team has 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 Stokes if his efforts were worth the lives of the men he lost. Stokes says they were. Truman then asks if, thirty years from then, anyone will remember that these men died for a piece of art. In 1977, the elderly Stokes, replies "Yeah," while he takes his grandson to see Michelangelo's Madonna.

Tags: action

Review:
War heroes who appreciate fine art played by the likes of Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman (plus a few "that guy"s), attempting to steal back priceless works of art from the Nazis, it sounds amazing.So what went wrong?
The only character whose motivations we can understand is the one played by Cate Blanchett, but her limited chemistry with Matt Damon dooms what little redemptive quality her character had.Also, and particularly troubling for a movie involving art, George Clooney's lens has little reverence for the work it shows.
The Monuments Men is directed by George Clooney, staring himself, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.
It tells of a group of soldiers tasked to locate and preserve pieces of art that have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II.It's no secret that The Monuments Men was one of everyone's most anticipated movies of 2013, and looked like a solid awards contender, until it was pushed to a February release date, purportedly due to the need for more time to be spent on the special effects.The truth is, The Monuments Men could be, and really should be much more entertaining than it is.
Albeit all of the actors are exceedingly fun to watch, I assume that just watching all of these actors talk together at a press conference would be just about as entertaining.The Monuments Men isn't even close to the worst movie of 2014 by a long shot, even though it is only February, but it's arguably the most disappointing film of the year as of yet.
"The Monuments Men" is a group of men (in real life around 350, and in this film 7) who are tasked with saving the historically and culturally significant monuments, fine arts and archives during World War II.
Coincidentally, the same point when the film started following the real story."The Monuments Men" very clearly wanted to help remember an important part of history and spark a debate about the cost of war on soldiers, civilians, and history and society.
Yet despite the movie's drawbacks, it still manages to tell a story about an historical event of great importance and significance, and for that reason alone is worth watching..
" That is very much how the movie felt; the actors were proficient in delivering their lines as well as they could, given the nightmare of a script they had to follow - but there was no chemistry between any of them at any point, so when they were getting all joking and friendly with each other, it just looked and felt awkward; like being at a party where you're watching someone be overly friendly to someone else.
Never thought much about George Clooney, wanted to see it because of the cast (Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, someone I thought was Joel Grey but wasn't).Every frame is art.It's a movie for someone who loves art history and world history and beauty and risking everything for a cause greater than yourself.Driving home, we wondered why this movie was not better received.
In 1943, the American Professor Frank Stokes (George Clooney) convinces President Roosevelt that the art stolen by the German should be retrieved and he recruits six art experts to form the Monuments Men's unit to travel to Europe with him to search the treasures.
On the arrival, they split to several cities to guide the Allies to find the arts to return them to the owners.I do not know how accurate "The Monuments Men" is but this movie has a boring story, terrible screenplay and unconvincing performances.
He makes movies whenever he can about topics, people, and issues he cares about.Having read the book this film was based upon, I was looking for gestures, expressions, persuasive indications of a movement most people, including me until very recently, were not aware of.A story in today's Wall Street Journal proclaimed that the desire to save, protect, salvage and restore, and allow the present and the future to continue to enjoy art - is ongoing - even in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq.
That article also dramatized General Eisenhower's efforts to ensure that American soldiers were respectful and appreciative of other countries' cultures and their artistic and other achievements.I thought that the exposition, the part of the movie that was slowest moving, where each character had to be introduced and developed, then inserted into the rather tense and nervous camaraderie, such as it was, was the weakest part of the film; but even this part had the feel of a recapturing of the mis en scene of 1944 global Armageddon in the world.I often forget that many of the Chicago group that made Saturday Night famous: John Belushi, Bill Murray and many others, were classically trained actors.
Bill Murray listening to a record while in the shower is a great moment in theater, in acting, in verisimilitude, the art of making the gesture, the moment, seem so real that the audience forgets it is only a movie.The entire cast behaved as if they truly were the architects, curators, sculptors, and connoisseurs they were portraying, and I felt that the movie got stronger and stronger after the going got really tough in their mission.Kate Blanchett plays a tough French woman smoldering with an inner burning anger, and she is convincing in every scene she was in.
I was aware that the Nazis had stolen artwork during WWII but I wasn't aware of the scale of what they had done.George Clooney was obviously moved by the story as he wrote this screenplay, directed and produced the movie and acted in it.Looking every bit the 50s movie idol George leads a great cast including John Goodman, Matt Damon and Bill Murray.
Director George Clooney has assembled a great cast including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonnevile.
If I was watching it in a movie theater I'd surely walk away.In the true story, a force of around 300 men chased a huge number of European art treasures to save them from the Nazis and rescue the heritage of the Western civilization.
The Monuments Men wants to be a jaunty all star caper in the style of Ocean's 11 but with the serious undertones of this being based on true events.There was a group of Monuments Men who had the task of finding historical and cultural treasures and snatch it away from the Nazis.George Clooney as star, co-writer and director wants to inject a comedic tone as some of his all star cast bicker as they go about their search and adventure.
Lt. Frank Stokes, who spearheaded the mission, is portrayed by George Clooney, while the men he recruits are played by Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bib Balaban, Dimitri Leonidas and Hugh Bonneville ("Downton Abbey").
Cate Blanchett co-stars as a curator who is also a Resistance fighter working for the French Underground, and who is initially suspicious of the Monuments Men's motives for rounding up the treasures.The movie is interesting enough as an unusual slice of history, I suppose, but the screenplay by Clooney and Grant Heslov, based on the book by Robert M.
Other characters play their parts as though they were visitors in the set.There were two or three instances where I was tricked into thinking that something exciting was going to happen, but the subject ended abruptly and the boring and easily anticipated theme was back.I wanted to like the movie so badly that I was successful in staying awake for about 45 minutes, but then was in and out until the last 20 minutes, where the pace picked up from snail to turtle pace..
This film was a surprise to me in that it was not about six or eight adventurers and funny men, was not a World War II edition of Oceans 11, but is the several tales of art experts, acting alone or in pairs, commissioned as a group to locate and save art stolen by the Nazis.The individual actors play to form, the history was interesting, the writing was predictable and substandard.I would probably never replay this film, but, for those interested in World War II and its small stories, this is worth a few bucks to see.
"The Monument Men" tells the story of a group of art experts recruited by the US armed forces during WW II to ensure that Europe's artistic heritage was not destroyed in the war.
The Monuments Men stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Hugh Bonneville.
The way the film is put together I thought was a little strange, the first half felt like a series of sketches mixed with a very dramatic story of World War horror; about half way through it got much better but you did get the odd scene which added nothing to the story but gave you a good laugh, which I did.
Or at least that's the struggle of the hero in the titular film inspired by the events: Frank Stokes (George Clooney), a curator at Harvard's Fogg Museum, goes back to the Army to head a small art recovery contingent (7—most out of shape and aging like John Goodman), with echoes of the Magnificent Seven and Dirty Dozen recruiting sequences, promising exceptional wit and action that doesn't materialize.Why is such a high-concept plot lost in a February opening?
At least the studio had the good sense not to pit this modest adventure against, say, American Hustle or 12 Years a Slave in the Oscar prelims in November and December.The action picks up as they find the destinations, but along the way James Granger (Matt Damon) interacts with Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett) in a low-key romance that finds great art but small love.
Another concern besides history and coherence is tone: Reverence for the mission clashes with the jokey camaraderie of old-fashioned WWII movies.It is a delight to hear the names of artists like Picasso and Rembrandt even though they had little influence on the film's fair-to midlin' screenplay penned by Clooney and Grant Heslov.
The Monuments Men is a 2014 American-German war-comedy-drama war film directed by George Clooney, written and produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and with all-star cast such as Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.
Based on the true story of art experts going into the front-line to safeguard major art-pieces at the end of World War II in Europe before the Nazis could destroy them or the Soviet seize them serves as George Clooney's latest directional .
Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett were given particularly thankless roles as they work together in Paris, disappearing as the rest of the cast fight on the front line.Despite Clooney's noble intentions and excellent cast The Monuments Men falters with his misjudged tone and Clooney has made better films as a director..
The real life photos over the end-titles indicate that it certainly wasn't all made up.Though this premise is a little less than gripping ('scraping the bottom of the barrel' in terms of war stories comes to mind), it must have looked good on paper: George Clooney (both starring and directing), Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin (though without Uggie), John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett (hot Oscars property for Blue Velvet).
This film is not recommended.The Monuments Men tells the supposedly true story of a group of art lovers who fought to preserve the world's art treasures from the Nazis during World War II.
When Frank Stokes (George Clooney) meets up with Joseph Granger (Matt Damon) early in the planning stages of their art retrieval task, its hard not to expect at least one solid in-joke from their team-up in the famed "Oceans" film series - yet none comes.
In the early scenes of "The Monuments Men," director George Clooney introduces his supporting cast of characters portrayed by John Goodman, Bill Murray, and Bob Balaban.
However, "The Monuments Men" deceives its audience with a promise of a quality storyline that features American soldiers searching to retrieve irreplaceable art that Hitler and the Nazis have stolen from France.George Clooney may have been on the path of becoming the next Warren Beatty, a heartthrob actor turned serious director, until "The Monuments Men." His direction is not the film's sorest aspect, but the directing itself is substantially weaker than the skills he has shown recently with "The Ides of March" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." He attempts to run the story with a path in mind, but his attempts feel like his legs were injured while trying run on that path.
I wonder if Clooney was consciously writing the script or if he was actually executing effort; if that is the case, my heart goes out to his lacking ability to write competent dialogue.With those high-status actors, one would think they would be able to be the saving grace of "The Monuments Men." Sadly, the male actors show no signs of characterization, making their characters feel like extensions of their own personalities.
In her first scene, Claire spits into someone's drinking glass and my response was a sympathetic one, knowing Blanchett is capable of better work."The Monuments Men" wants to be a serious film, but falls back on comedy, becoming a real- life treasure hunt.
"If you destroy their achievements, their history, it's like they never existed."When I heard George Clooney was going to direct a film about a World War II platoon tasked by Roosevelt to rescue art masterpieces, and that Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, and John Goodman were all going to co-star with him, I was sure it was going to win all kinds of awards and was highly anticipating it.
The word disappointment comes to mind considering how much potential The Monuments Men had, but it was still entertaining despite some of the misfires in Clooney's film.The script was adapted by George Clooney and Grant Heslov from Robert Edsel's book about the world's greatest treasure hunt in history.
Despite their little military experience they began a race against time in order to rescue these valuable art pieces and return them to their owners before Hitler destroyed them all.There are some fun moments in The Monuments Men thanks in most part to the incredible cast, but one can't help and think about how underused they were.
I am not sure the movie does just for the real Monument Men.George Clooney,I would like a refund please..
The potential for Monuments Men was to be one of the all-time great movies, however, George Clooney's direction and screenplay were both lacking.
Monuments Men never pretends to be a comedy, but the entire movie feels unfocused as Bill Murray (He doesn't have an Oscar yet..hmmm) throws one-liners centimeters away from death—with impending Nazi danger around the corner.And despite the stellar cast with decent performances (John Goodman and Cate Blanchett deserving some extra credit), despite the good cinematography and usual good direction from Hollywood staple George Clooney, the movie feels very by-the-numbers, paint-within-the-lines.
Perhaps it was a little bit of all of the above.I consider myself fairly well informed when it comes to World War 2, but I have to say that although I know that the Nazis looted loads of art from all across the continent, I never knew that the real-life 'Monument Men' existed - people who's job it was to try and locate all this missing artwork, get it back, and return it to their rightful owners.
If most critics are to be believed, Clooney has completely wasted this golden opportunity - not to mention the cast of a lifetime.What's comforting about watching the actual film is discovering that The Monuments Men is, on the whole, a great deal better than the extremes of expectation and opinion would suggest.
(After Granger is rebuffed by Claire a few times, what does he actually do in Paris?) There's a climactic scene in which Lt. Donald Jeffries (Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville) fights to keep Michelangelo's exquisite Madonna and Child statue out of Nazi hands - but it's so choppily edited together that audiences might find themselves puzzled about what exactly happened.But The Monuments Men is also a real delight: a movie about war that brims over with hope and humanity, while never losing sight of the very real horrors and consequences of heading into battle.
Although I know other stories as movies can and do end up being as good or better (i.e.: The Noble Sculptor), The Monuments Men is not as bad as some reviews have you think.
I felt like if art, history, or true stories don't appeal to you then stay away from this movie.
Clooney, aka Mr Pretentious is bad enough at the best of times, but this "vehicle" had me wanting to pull his teeth out.The whole premise of this movie is flawed and it is a very skewed representation of the "true story" on which it is based; I'll stop a little short of saying that it is an outright lie.For the uninitiated: a group of soldiers are tasked with re-capturing famous works of art, stolen by the Nazis.My largest problem with this is the assertion made a number of times throughout the movie that in some way, artwork is more important than human lives because "a bunch of people might be killed, but this is our culture".
This was not a great movie.The Monuments Men is an drama about some middle aged men being drafted into a World War II platoon to save great works of art threatened by Hitler and the Nazis.
Directed by George Clooney who also starred and included Matt Damon, John Goodman, and Cate Blanchett, this movie inspired by the World War II allied effort to save invaluable art treasures that the Nazi's had stolen, has trouble with its overall tone.