I wrote a post about Monuments Men by Edsel a while ago (http://wp.me/p4H2Re-19), and just recently had access to the film so I could place the actors and plot to the novel. In general, the novel was mediocre, a little long winded when it came to facts, dates, and places. I hate to say it, but it needed more pictures. And yet, this is why it made a really great film! I will clarify, better than average film.

Now, I may be a science geek during the day, but one of my favorite things to do is look at art. I really enjoy contemplating what an artist was thinking when they made such masterpieces, and one of my favorite classes as an undergrad was art history. I learned so much and have fond memories of the class and my professor who had such a passion for teaching, specifically teaching art, it was infectious. You knew she loved it, so you in turn loved it. In fact, one of the pieces she covered in her class was the Ghent Altarpiece, which is one of the masterpieces saved by the Monuments Men. I teared up when I saw the Nazis in the film stealing the piece, and when the Monuments Men saved her I was so so happy.

The movie was made in honor of the individuals who risked their lives by going into occupied territory during WW II and saving as much art and historical architecture as possible. The team split up and was placed in key areas of the war to save different aspects of European art (Belgium and France as examples). While in these places, the officers tried to coordinate with non-scholarly officers to save the buildings and artwork from destruction. Understandably, many officers refused to save buildings instead of their soldiers’ lives. This theme makes sense, but at the same time is a travesty. To the uneducated eye, art is just a picture. But to future generations, it means so much more: historically, characteristically of the time that it was made, and symbolic.

I will have to say, Clooney and Damon were quite good in the film, but it was the supporting cast which really made the film enjoyable. Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban really made the film magnificent and portrayed their characters well. In the novel, Edsel doesn’t really go into the character traits that the Monuments Men had (and it may not be known), but seeing the personalities of the actors really provided a tangibility of the officers.

There were two general parts that I did not like in the film. One of them was Cate Blanchett’s character. Reading the book made clear her role in the Monuments Men fight against Germany, but the film really downplayed her role. She essentially gave Damon a list of artwork and he took the list and used it to match art. It was almost an unnecessary time sync in the character and plot development that could have shortened the film (which they needed) or just cut her out completely. The other part that bugged me was the ending of the film and how all of the artwork was found in the salt mines. It was almost as if they came to the mine, saw it was closed, opened it, then rescued all the artwork and done. Edsel devoted so much more of the book to this that it was a bit saddening to see such a huge portion of the art saved during WW II to not be explained well.

In the end, I give props to Clooney for making a film that was historical and enjoyable. I really do hope that many Americans learned a thing or two from the film, if anything something about American history. This piece of history was not well-known prior to the film, let alone prior to Edsel’s book. These men truly saved a lot of history and they should be thanked. Their memory will live on cinematic history from now on, which is a great, great thing.