The Monuments Men Review

The Monuments Men


Release Date: 13th March 2014 - Australia


Production Companies
Fox 2000 Pictures (present)
Columbia Pictures (present)
Smokehouse Pictures
Studio Babelsberg

Distribution
20th Century Fox Australia


Genre: War

Rating: M

Runtime: 118 minutes


Budget: $70,000,000

Box Office Gross: $154,984,035
(Worldwide)


Plot Summary

Based on the true story of 

the greatest treasure hunt 

in history, The Monuments 

Men focuses on an unlikely 

World War II platoon, tasked 

by FDR with going into 

Germany to rescue artistic 

masterpieces from Nazi 

thieves and returning them 

to their rightful owners. It 

would be an impossible 

mission: with the art trapped 

behind enemy lines, and 

with the German army under 

orders to destroy everything 

as the Reich fell, how could 

these guys – seven museum 

directors, curators, and art 

historians, all more familiar 

with Michelangelo than the 

M-1 – possibly hope to 

succeed? 

But as the Monuments Men, 

as they were called, found 

themselves in a race against 

time to avoid the destruction 

of 1000 years of culture, 

they would risk their lives to 

protect and defend 

mankind’s greatest 

achievements. (Source - Metro Cinemas)

Cast
George Clooney - Lt. Frank Stokes
Matt Damon - Lt. James Granger
Cate Blanchett - Claire Simone
Bill Murray - Sgt. Richard 
Campbell
John Goodman - Sgt. Walter 
Garfield
Jean Dujardin - Lt. Jean Claude Clermont
Bob Balaban - Pvt. Preston Savitz
Hugh Bonneville - Lt. Donald Jeffries
Sam Hazeldine - Colonel Langton
Dimitri Leonidas - Sam Epstein
Justus von Dohnanyi - Viktor Stahl
Holger Handtke - Colonel Wegner
Michael Hofland - Priest (Claude)
Zachary Baharov - Commander Elya
Miles Jupp - Major Fielding
Alexandre Desplat - Emile
Serge Hazanavicius - Rene Armand
Diarmaid Murtagh - Captain Harpen
Udo Kroschwald - Hermann Goering
Michael Dalton - President Roosevelt
Christian Rodska - President Truman
James Payton - Hitler
Nick Clooney - Older Stokes
Joe Reynolds - Stokes' Son
Levi Strasser - Stokes' Grandson

Crew
Screenplay/Producer/Director - George Clooney
Based on Book "The Monuments Men" -
Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter
Screenplay/Producer - Grant Heslov
Executive Producer - Barbara A. Hall
Co-Producers - Christoph Fisser,
Henning Molfenter and Charlie Woebcken
Production Designer - Jim Bissell
Costume Designer - Louise Frogley
Director of Photography - Phedon Papamichael
Visual Effects Supervisors - Angus Bickerton
and Huseyin Caner
Film Editor - Stephen Mirrione
Music - Alexander Desplat

Review 

Specifically, this is a movie with war as the backdrop and I must've had myself flustered as to whether it was an action comedy or drama. At first, 'THE MONUMENTS MEN' is actually good to see on screen for those who never heard of the true story behind it, thus making it a historical war picture. Then again, it clearly demonstrates that only 80 percent of the accuracy remained faithful to the actual events. I would point out that 'THE MONUMENTS MEN' was in this case, only a fair and decent movie. Everything is in a small scale but it features a spectacular cast of Matt Damon, George Clooney, Bill Murray and John Goodman. I never had lost any of the faith for these actors and they all did well in the movie.

War films are not my speciality. In reflection of this film, it didn't have some of its captivating moments nor it was destined to become the best or the worst movie that's ever been made. This is a rhetorical statement but overall I find that 'THE MONUMENTS MEN' has a very little feeling of being a milestone movie. It's more of a decent one with some value to possibly re-see it.

Star rating: (6/10) Fair Movie

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