#monumentsmen

If anyone was going to embrace The Monuments Men, it's me. I’m the person whose heart breaks a little bit every time I remember that about 70% of all American silent films are lost. I wish I could get this strong a reaction out of The Monuments Men. This could've been a great film, instead of merely ok.

During the final years of WW II, Allied forces are pushing Hitler’s armies back into Germany. Amid the battles, Frank Stokes (George Clooney) and a small group of specialists lead the search for stolen art and guide soldiers to prevent them from damaging historical monuments. If these are destroyed, the people and cultures Adolf Hitler wanted to exterminate may be forgotten.

The elements that don’t work should've been spotted at the script level. This is a dramatic film that reiterates over and over the importance of artwork and mourns the destruction war brings… but also wants to make you laugh. Comedy is an effective way to releases tension, particularly in drama and horror films. When The Monuments Men tries to put this idea into practice, it's with sitcom-y gags inserted seemingly at random. Worse, they're not frequent enough for you to get acclimated to the tonal shift. You can't have people laughing over the perils of a landmine that may or may not explode and then minutes later have the heroes discover a barrel full of gold stolen from Concentration Camp victims. Either you feel bad for laughing earlier, or the drama is diminished. Both possible reactions prevent you from reaching the desired emotional peak.

There's simply too much going on here. Early in the film, the Monuments Men split up. James Granger (Matt Damon) travels to France to get information from a curator forced to assist Nazi officers (Cate Blanchett as Claire Simone). Meanwhile, Sgt. Walter Garfield (John Goodman) and 2nd Lt. Jean-Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) are off in the countryside, Sgt. Richard Campbell (Bill Murray) and Pvt. Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban) and squabbling over flimsily defined and irreconcilable differences. Over there, Lt. Stokes and 2nd Lt. Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) are chasing a “holy grail” of a statue. That's four different, related directions.

Time that needed to be spent establishing the importance of art is too frequently relegated to side characters. I understand why someone might give up their life for a statue of the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. Will the average movie viewer? I doubt it and the movie knows this. Despite these errors in judgment, eventually, seeing these men putting their lives on the line does make the message click. If these works are destroyed, future generations like ourselves will be robbed of something special. It would be bad enough if it was simply because someone was a sore loser but it's more. This is a deliberate effort to annihilate a people.

It says a lot that I was affected by the themes and ideas in the film far more than by the film itself. The production of The Monuments Men is first-rate, there are many powerful moments and some good performances too. There are also too many characters. Nearly every comedic moment falls flat. For a picture that lasts nearly 2 hours and deals with war crimes, The Monuments Men doesn’t have the weight it should. Nevertheless, I give the film a mild recommendation. You won’t love it but you'll remain entertained while it lasts. If it gives you a new appreciation for art, you won't mind sitting through those flaws. (On DVD, July 16, 2015)

foresight:

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