#themonumentsmen

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)

The Monuments Men is based on the true story of the team of American soldiers who were tasked with rescuing and protecting art from the Nazis during World War II. It stars George Clooney along with a bunch of other great actors, including Bill Murray, John Goodman, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett. With this great cast and seemingly fascinating premise, I was a bit surprised to hear about the mediocre reviews this movie received when it first came out. It made me curious to watch this movie and find out if theses less-than-stellar reviews were accurate. What I found was that, while The Monuments Men isn’t a spectacular film or even a particularly memorable film, it’s still a pretty good film with some truly touching and funny moments.

What’s interesting about The Monuments Men is that, in my opinion, the second half of the film is much better than the first half. My main problem with the first half of the film is that it just kind of seemed lazily executed. We are briefly introduced to a bunch of characters and don’t get to know them well enough before we’re expected to care about them. In other words, this movie doesn’t earn its emotional heft until it reaches its second half, which makes for some emotional scenes that don’t really hit all that well in the first half. But in the second half, once you have enough motivation to be fully invested in these characters, the movie becomes much more enjoyable. And it makes for a conclusion that feels both earned and satisfying.

For a movie with such a stellar cast, there really aren’t any standout performances. If I had to pick one, I’d say the most memorable performance probably came from George Clooney, who plays the leader of the Monuments Men, Frank Stokes. Clooney has a couple of big monologues in the film that are really well delivered, including an interrogation scene with a German officer, which might be my favorite scene in the whole movie. As for the rest of the cast, they’re all fine. Bill Murray is lovable as ever, and John Goodman has some great moments. I should mention that I liked Bob Balaban’s character a lot. He and Murray have a few scenes together that are quite funny.

That’s another thing I like about this movie: it never lets itself get too dark or depressing. Sure, this is a movie about WW2 and fighting Nazis, so naturally, these characters have to deal with some pretty harsh stuff. But there’s always some much needed comedy to balance out the horrors of war. One of the main reasons these characters are so likable is that they all keep their senses of humor even when faced with the bleakest of situations. Overall, I thought the movie did a fine job of balancing light and weighty moments throughout its run-time.

All in all, I didn’t find The Monuments Men as dismal as some critics said it was. Sure it’s not the most exciting movie. It’s not action packed or fast paced, but it is told with a lot of heart. George Clooney directed it, and you can tell that he really cared about the subject matter, but there are ways he could have made it more compelling. I would have liked to get to know these characters a little bit more before I was asked to care about them--that’s really the main thing, in my mind, that could have made this movie better. Still, I would recommend that you check out The Monuments Men if you haven’t already. It really is a fascinating story and an important story about the men who risked their lives to protect important elements of Western culture.

Final Score: 7/10