This Sunday evening I found myself in a state of dumbfounded shock. I – a Wake Forest student – was finished with homework at 8 p.m.. Not questioning this small miracle, I scrambled to the MovieFone website to see which plot line I could melt into for a couple of hours. As I scrolled through, Monuments Men caught my eye. Like any tried and true movie nut, I did my research beforehand.
Based on a true story, Monuments Men is an action drama, co-written and directed by George Clooney. It hit theatres February 7th and, according to Rotten Tomatoes, has only generated $43.7 M so far. I found this a little astonishing, considering the impressive cast the film boasts. Clooney himself plays the lead, along with five other Oscar nominated and/or winners including Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, Invictus), Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Bob Balaban (Gosford Park), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), with lovable John Goodman and Hugh Bonneville rounding out the cast. Despite the lackluster reviews, I shelled out 8 bucks and saw it. The reviews of the film may be disappointing but the story behind it is anything but.
In the final months of World War II, an unlikely platoon of men were tasked with one of the greatest treasure hunts in history: save, protect and retrieve stolen art from the Nazi power and return it to its rightful owners. Was the mission impossible? Futile? Dangerous? With most of the art and sculptures trapped behind enemy lines and the men tasked with the mission knowing more about the artwork than an artillery, clearly, the mission was all of the above. Despite the apparent hopelessness, these men risked their lives to save thousands of paintings, sculptures, buildings and books. They risked their lives to save human culture.
As an audience member, I understand where the critics are coming from. I agree, the plot sequencing was a little choppy. With a handful of characters, multiple sub-plots and a myriad of locations, an uneven and broken result is bound to occur. However, I believe the critiques may be rooted in a more substantiated place. Many viewers, movie critics included, may have a predisposed opinion about the film. Put simply, they may be thinking, “why would our army risk supplies to save art when lives are being lost every day?” More importantly, “why should I watch a movie where one of the most tragic events in the world’s history, World War II, is the backdrop instead of the focus?” With these opinions already formulated, it’s easy to connect the dots that resulted in a bad movie review. Nonetheless, after watching it, I got the sense that perhaps the goal of the film was not to be a box-office hit, rather it was to promote awareness about the men that risked their lives to save some of mankind’s greatest achievements.
Watching the movie, the plot line almost seems absurd. That Hitler was plotting to steal every – and I mean every – piece of remarkable art ever created. Believing he would succeed in winning the war, he wished to establish the Führermuseum, a monumental construction that would be home to these paintings, books and sculptures. In the event he lost the war efforts, he had ordered that every piece of stolen artwork be destroyed instantly. Just like a selfish toddler he employed the reasoning, “If I can’t have it, no one can.” In essence, not only could Germany defeat the Allies by killing people and destroying cities, but it could steal away their culture, making it seem as if these people had never existed at all.
Explained in the grand scheme of things, this mission seems less of an annoyance and more of a necessity. Now, it may be because I’m an Anthropology major, so I’m naturally intrigued by material aspects and the significance they have to a culture, but think about it. Hitler was attempting to destroy an entire existence. In his warpath his left millions dead and hundreds of cities diminished to just rubble. Without these men willing to risk their lives, he could have gotten away with stealing some of humanity’s greatest accomplishments. Wit no people, no structures and no material objects to prove a people existed, Hitler would have accomplished the goal of destroying a piece of culture he deemed unworthy to survive.
So, maybe the movie didn’t get the greatest of reviews and maybe viewers were left a little disappointed. However, it’s an accomplishment in itself that an audience can even watch a movie about a war effort that has yet to receive any attention. An effort to preserve not only lives, but also the characteristic that separates us from every other animal on earth: our humanity.
Real Life Monuments Men: Image from SmithsonianMag.com
Refer to the links below for further information regarding the real life Monuments Men:
Smithsonian Museum Exhibit: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/
Based on the book Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert M. Edsel
Documentary Rape of Europa focusing on the real-life story of the Monuments Men: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0iL7k_R0LM