“The Monuments Men” is a fascinating film that is loosely-based on the true story of those who risked their lives to find artwork stolen by the Nazi’s and return them back to the original owners. While the film features an all-star cast, the stories of these cast members were under-developed and pacing was off. A noble film about the preservation of art during World War II but also a film with a number of historical inaccuracies.Â
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DVD TITLE: The Monuments Men
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 2014
DURATION: 118 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 2:40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English, English Audio Descriptive Track, French, French – Audio Descriptive Track 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: PG-13 (Some Images of War Violence and Historical Smoking)
RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2014
Directed by George Clooney
Screenplay by George Clooney, Grant Heslov
Based on the book by Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter
Produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslove
Co-Producer: Christopher Fisser, Henning Molfenter
Executive Producer: Barbara A. Hall
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography by Phedon Papamichael
Edited by Stephen Mirrione
Casting by Jina Jay
Production Design by James D. Bissell
Set Decoration by Bernhard Henrich
Costume Design by Louise Frogley
Starring:
George Clooney as Frank Stokes
Matt Damon as James Granger
Bill Murray as Richard Campbell
Cate Blanchett as Claire Simone
John Goodman as Walter Garfield
Jean Dujardin as Jean Claude Clermont
Hugh Bonneville as Donald Jeffries
Bob Balaban as Preston Savitz
Dimitri Leonidas as Sam Epstein
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, THE MONUMENTS MEN centers around an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. In a seemingly impossible mission, the Monuments Men, as they were called, find themselves risking their lives in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1,000 years of culture.
When actor/filmmaker George Clooney was inspired by Robert M. Edsel’s non-fiction book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History”, leave it to Clooney to go out and produce and direct his own film.
Having directed “Good Night, and Good Luck.”, “Leatherheads” and “The Ides of March”, Clooney directs and stars in “The Monuments Men”, a film based on a true story and a film that did well in the box office, earning over $154 million worldwide.
Featuring an all-star cast, the film would star George Clooney (“Ocean’s Eleven”, “Gravity”, “Up in the Air”) alongside Matt Damon (“The Bourne Identity”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Good Will Hunting”), Bil Murray (“Groundhog Day”, “Lost in Translation”, “Ghostbusters”), Cate Blanchett (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “The Lord of the Rings” films), John Goodmen (“The Big Lebowski”, “Argo”, “Roseanne”), Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “OSS 117”), Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”, “Notting Hill”), Bob Balaban (“Ghost World”, “Gosford Park”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) and Dimitri Leonidas (“Tormented”, “Centurion”).
“The Monuments Men” takes place during World War II (1943) and word gets out that the Nazi’s have stolen art treasures from western civilization and fearful that more art will be destroyed in combat or looted, Frank Stokes (portrayed by George Clooney) persuades the US President that the art treasures must be rescued.
Stokes is given the permission to assemble an Army unit known as the “Monuments Men” which comprises of seven museum directors, curators and art historians who will work with allied units and search for stolen art in order to return it back to their rightful owners.
Meanwhile, in France which is occupied by the Nazis, Parisian curator Claire Simone (portrayed by Cate Blanchett), must allow Nazi officer Viktor Stahl (portrayed by Justus von Dohnanyi) to take the art for Adolf Hitler’s proposed Fuherermuseum in Linz or become the personal property of senior commanders. But behind the scenes, Claire is helping the French resistance fighters, the Maquis, to recapture the items.
When Viktor Stahl finds out what Claire Simone has been doing, he immediately has all of the gallery’s contents stolen and taken to Germany.
As James Granger (portrayed by James Granger) tries to get an reluctant Claire to tell him where the Nazis are taking the stolen artwork, Stokes and his Monuments Men which include Granger, Richard Campbell (portrayed by Bill Murray), Walter Garfield (portrayed by John Goodman), Jean Claude Clermont (portrayed by Jean Dujardin), Donald Jeffries (portrayed by Hugh Bonneville), Preston Savitz (portrayed by Bob Balaban) and Sam Epstein (portrayed by Dimitri Leonidas) to travel to dangerous areas and putting their lives at risk in order to rescue art stolen by the Nazis.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Monuments Men” is featured in 2:40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen) and in English and French 5.1 Dolby Digital (plus audio descriptive track). It’s important to note that if you want to watch the best quality of this film, you will want to opt for the Blu-ray release which will no doubt give you better picture quality and wonderful lossless soundtrack.
As for the DVD release, the film looks very good on DVD. Definitely not having the same amount of detail or vibrancy as the Blu-ray release, “The Monuments Men” looks very good and I didn’t notice any major artifacts or banding during my viewing. The soundtrack is dialogue-driven for the majority of the film, but certain scenes featuring war battles utilize the surround channels when needed. Dialogue and musical soundtrack are both crystal clear!
Subtitles are in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Monuments Men” comes with the following special features:
- George Clooney’s Mission – (5:11) George Clooney having dual roles as director and actor in the film.
- Marshalling the Troops – (7:55) The talent discuss working on the film and what they enjoyed about working on a World War II film.
Based on a true story. The true story of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) and its accomplishments is inspiring and entertaining.
And the fact that George Clooney was willing to create a film about preserving art and culture is noble.
Usually, I appreciate films that take a factual storyline, which many people are not aware about and bring it to the big screen, it’s something to admire the filmmaker, writer and the producers for going forward with the project.
But as much as I wanted to enjoy “The Monuments Men” due to its all-star cast, the film seemed as if it would have done better as a TV mini-series rather than a film. There was clearly not enough time to focus on these characters and the pacing was off. Some of the stories relating to these characters were no doubt better than others, and I found myself being entertained by the Walter Garfield (Goodman) and Jean Claude Clermont (Dujardin) storyline and the James Granger (Damon) and Claire Simone (Blanchett) much more than others. And that is because there was more time developed for these characters to enjoy their storyline much more.
Also, if Clooney and Grant Heslov retained some of the historical accuracy of the film along with the typical Hollywood changes, perhaps it would have made a better film, for those who watched the film and googled, just to find out that the film is historically inaccurate.
Clooney’s character Frank Stokes is based on George Stout, who was not responsible for creating the MFAA, although he was an advocate in protecting art during the war.
Jean Dujardin’s Jean Claude Clermont was not based on anyone, there were no French officers who worked with the MFAA.
And as for Blanchett’s Claire Simone, based on Rose Valland, a wartime hero in France, in the film, she is a woman who has important information but she is also reduced to a woman who eventually tries to get closer to James Granger. While in reality, she was a woman who risked her life for intelligence work on the stolen artwork and her relationship to anyone in MFAA was strictly professional. She understood German, pretending that she didn’t know the language, so she can listen in on their conversations.
But what is true in the film is that she was reluctant to give any information to James Granger (in reality, Lt. James Rorimer) in fear that the art would be stolen yet again.
The film also focuses on Hitler issuing a decree (the Nero Decree) to destroy the artwork, but in reality, Hitler wanted the art for his museums and wanted only military, transportation, communications, industrial and food locations to be destroyed. They did destroy artwork that was degenerate (surrealism, expressionism, Cubism) but the burning of art did not go into effect, because Albert Speer, Hitler’s Minister of Armaments, ignored the order.
And there is more that people can discover online in regards to the differences of what really happened during World War II and what was depicted in the film.
With that being said, those who want to see historical accuracy will not find it in “The Monuments Men”, you will get a film about a group of men who would put their life at risk for the sake of preserving art. Once again, while noble of George Clooney for making a film adaptation possible, I do wish that the film did have more accurate representations of what took place in World War II. I do understand that a lot of films based on any war or any factual subject are not always accurate, but those who strive to find a balance in creating an entertaining film with accuracy, I feel much better and am entertained by those type of films than those who try to stretch out the truth.
Also even if I didn’t know about the historical inaccuracies of the film, the storyline and its handling of the characters didn’t go too smoothly and the film becomes more about American bravado during World War II.
As for the DVD, if you want the best picture and audio quality, the Blu-ray version of the film is the way to go. The DVD also has two short special features included.
Overall, “The Monuments Men” is a fascinating film that is loosely-based on the true story of those who risked their lives to find artwork stolen by the Nazi’s and return them back to the original owners. While the film features an all-star cast, the stories of these cast members were under-developed and pacing was off. A noble film about the preservation of art during World War II but also a film with a number of historical inaccuracies.
