MOVIE REVIEW: Monument’s Men (2013)

The Monument’s Men is a film based on a true story which follows an extraordinary group of individuals. These individuals, collectively known as The Monument’s men, were an American team tasked with capturing and returning works of art originally stolen by Nazi Germany during World War 2. I can’t judge how historically accurate the film is (although I do want to go find out more about them), but it depicts them as being right on the frontlines in order to achieve this goal.

The leader of The Monument’s Men, George Clooney, manages to look as sexy as ever on the screen while sporting a very classy moustache. He also somehow manages to not look evil while he has it. Of course, George is joined by several other Monument’s Men including Matt Damon and John Goodman. Each member of his team has a specific specialty (such as an Architect or a Scupltor), but for the most part these never seem to affect anything as his team is thrown into the war.

This film seems very keen to involve the Monument’s Men in the war. However, it does this at the expense of character development. It spends precious little time at the beginning of the film establishing the characters or showing any of their background or occupations before being recruited. Instead, we are treated to George Clooney meeting each of them in turn in his typical suave fashion and them agreeing to be involved. This felt particularly jarring when you are told that a certain character has a dark past but it is never once explained until after his heroic sacrifice (and implied redemption).

The only reason this works is because it is set in World War 2 against the Nazis. This means that there is never any question of their motivations or who the bad guys are. These men want to be involved in the war effort but are not physically able (due to age or medical conditions) so it isn’t too big a leap to fill in the motivations myself.

Instead, The Monument’s Men seems to want to establish that they were real soldiers. This is from George Clooney’s expository voice-overs that tell us how heroic they were to showing them in battles or with the enemy whenever the situation presented itself. This is often despite their commanding officers thinking that there goals were not important or failing to support them, sometimes with disastrous results for The Monument’s Men. The Russians also provide a ticking clock as they are trying to grab as much art as they can for reparations as opposed to returning it, which in this case is presented as them stealing the art for themselves.

 And that is, in a nutshell, what makes this film compelling. It focuses on a small group that has to battle with the Nazi’s and (to some extent) their own forces for a goal that only they truly believe in. While they are battling, they continue to prove their worth. Although it could have spent some more time establishing the basic characters, it does a good enough job when they are all together to keep the action moving and a tight focus on them being involved in the war.

3.5 out of 5 Stolen Picasso-waffles.