The Monuments Men (2014)

An unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners.

Director:

George Clooney

Writers:

George Clooney (screenplay), Grant Heslov (screenplay)

Stars:

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Clooney	...	Frank Stokes
Matt Damon	...	James Granger
Bill Murray	...	Richard Campbell
Cate Blanchett	...	Claire Simone
John Goodman	...	Walter Garfield
Jean Dujardin	...	Jean Claude Clermont
Hugh Bonneville	...	Donald Jeffries
Bob Balaban	...	Preston Savitz
Dimitri Leonidas	...	Sam Epstein
Justus von Dohnányi	...	Viktor Stahl
Holger Handtke	...	Colonel Wegner
Michael Hofland	...	Priest (Claude)
Zachary Baharov	...	Commander Elya (as Zahary Baharov)
Michael Brandner	...	Dentist
Sam Hazeldine	...	Colonel Langton

Storyline

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing 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.

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Plot Keywords:

art | art expert | nazi stolen art | 1940s | world war two | 

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Taglines:

It was the greatest art heist in history

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some images of war violence and historical smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

Daniel Craig was cast in a role but ultimately dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Matt Damon replaced him.

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Goofs

When Lt. Stokes turns around from viewing the slide of the map of France, he has a pencil in his hand and the clip board is on the table. In the next shot from over his shoulder, the clip board is in his hand and he then places it back on the table.

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Quotes

Claire Simone: [after listening to Granger attempt to communicate very badly in French] Would you stop speaking French? Or whatever language you are speaking?
James Granger: Well, if it weren't for us, you'd... you'd be speaking German.
Claire Simone: No. If it was not for you, I might be dead. But I would still be speaking French.
James Granger: [Glances away] OK.

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Crazy Credits

At the beginning of the end credits there are black and white photos of the real Monuments Men with some of the art they saved.

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Connections

Spoofs Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

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Soundtracks

You Always Hurt The One You Love
Written by Doris Fisher and Allan Roberts
Performed by The Mills Brothers
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Telling an historical story comedically and missing a level of entertainment

"The Monuments Men" is a group of men (in real life around 350, and in this film 7) who are tasked with saving the historically and culturally significant monuments, fine arts and archives during World War II. They have to find and return that which the French hid and the Germans were finding and stealing and then hiding. And the film decided to tell this story comedically.

The film took a really long time to get going as they wanted it to be about the men that took on this task. But they changed their names and I also couldn't tell you a single characteristic of any of them. The men were paired off so they each had their own region to investigate, but none of that was interesting. The worst part was giving James Granger (Matt Damon) and Claire Simon (Cate Blanchett, representing the real- life heroine Rose Valland) a love story. They did have a reason for such nonsense, or how about just sticking with how it actually happened.

George Clooney has said the film is about 80% accurate, and that seems fair enough. But the problem isn't the historical inaccuracy; the problem is that the cheap humour diminishes the very people and story they're trying to empower. The humour was just a handful of lines wanting to kill Hitler and standing on a landmine. It just didn't make the film entertaining. The story could have done that but it didn't become interesting until they started discovering where the Germans hid the art. Coincidentally, the same point when the film started following the real story.

"The Monuments Men" very clearly wanted to help remember an important part of history and spark a debate about the cost of war on soldiers, civilians, and history and society. The debate is raging on, but the film missed the level of entertainment by not trusting its audience to be interested in exactly what happened.

Details

Official Sites:

Foundation about the people depicted in the movie Official Facebook

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English German Russian French Flemish Dutch

Release Date:

7 February 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Monuments Men

Filming Locations:

Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$22,003,433, 9 February 2014

Gross USA:

$78,031,620

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$156,706,638

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Fox 2000 Pictures, Smokehouse Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS Dolby Surround 7.1 Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1