The Monuments Men is based on an intriguing bit of real history. Towards the end of the World War II, a relatively small group of men (around 350) was tasked with the mission of making sure that the Nazi’s didn’t burn everything down with them as they plunged towards their inevitable defeat. Of particular concern were the many great and irreplaceable works of art they had seized to one day fill the Fuhrer museum. Not only did this team have to track down where this art was at, but also find a way to return it to its rightful place. The whole thing sounds like a real-life Indiana Jones adventure mixed with some Ocean’s Eleven heisting hijinks, and one would think that would naturally make for a great movie. And it still might, it’s just that The Monuments Men isn’t that movie. We see shades of the movie that it could have been, that rollicking Indiana/Ocean’s mash-up we were expecting, but in the end, what this movie mostly tells us is some stuff happened to try and save art during the end of World War II and proceeds to show us some highlights of what that effort was without ever really telling us a story.
Truthfully, I’d probably be a bit more lenient with all of that if it wasn’t so frustrating that such a fine cast was wasted doing not much of anything. Clooney, Murray, Damon, Goodman, Blanchett, Bonneville (the guy from Downtown Abbey, not the car), Balaban…there are some really good actors in here. Some of them, like Bill Murray, don’t really make many appearances anymore, so it’s easy to think if they’re doing this, it must be something special. For the most part, they all get their scenes, but we’ve spent so little time with their characters and learned so little about them that those scenes have a hard time connecting with the audience no matter who the actor is. We’re told that all these characters have bonded together, but we’re never shown it. Seriously, we’re just told they’re all buddies because “that’s what basic training does.” Ok, so we don’t know where they’ve come from, why they were picked for this (other than they’re artistic types like architects, sculptors, and what not), but we do know they’re all buddies with each other because we’re told they went through basic training and that’s what happens there. Umm…I was hoping for a little more development than that. Other oddities abound as far as possible character building moments, but the end result is some great talent that doesn’t get much time or material to really shine. Plus, I just have to say, this is one of the worst examples of the use of music in a movie I’ve seen in a long time. A friend described it as music from a 1960’s Disney documentary. It doesn’t ever enhance any scene, it just distracts from them, the cardinal sin of any movie soundtrack.
The core of this story is whether the art is really worth saving, even if it means the lives of the men trying to save it.
In truth, I found the latter part of that question to be the more compelling one; what is the life of a human really worth? We get a few hints at how the Nazi’s viewed the sanctity of human life; barrels filled with gold teeth, warehouses full of “people’s lives” – their art, their furniture – that were confiscated, references to Hitler’s “final solution,” and the camps that resulted from it. Yes, history has documented quite well exactly what the Nazi view on the value of human life. Then you have the Monuments Men and their view that perhaps even a priceless piece of art is worth more than a life. After all, art and its expression is the foundation of civilization as we know it, and isn’t that an ideal worth giving up a life for? This movie may be about the value of art in our culture and society, but I couldn’t escape the parallel track of the value and sanctity of human life. In fact, I think they may be tied up together. I would say that, in God’s eyes, human life is so precious and so valuable because it is nothing short of a work of art; a masterpiece. Humanity was the crowning achievement of God’s creation, and the only element out of all creation to be made in his image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), so the Bible tells us. We were sculpted out of the clay, crafted to resemble God, and given a breath of life. It was an artful act of creation that brought us into being; so, what is the art of human life worth? To God, it’s worth everything, and like those Monuments Men, He did everything possible, even sacrificing His one and only Son so that the beauty that is humanity might be saved. Was it worth the lives of those men to save the priceless art treasures of the Western world? What is the value of the artistic achievement that is human life; do we still believe it even has sanctity? Is it also a treasure worth protecting and guarding and, yes, maybe even sacrificing to protect?
At the end of the film, the president asks whether the art that was saved was worth the lives of the men who were lost. I thought that was kind of an odd question since he, the president, was the one who approved said mission, so I assumed he had already worked through those issues, but of course that was more a question for the audience to contemplate that just happened to be uttered by a character who should have already figured it out…sorry, off track there. So, the question is, was it worth it? Regardless of what the answer is in history, I think it’s safe to say that this film, which struggles to relate that history, is definitely not worth it. It’s frustrating because not only is there some fascinating history to learn here, which we do get a bit off, but also the potential for a really great, really fun film. The Monuments Men never fully taps into the history it’s trying to relate or the potential fun it could have. The cast is just too good, so there is some enjoyment to be had, but overall, it’s just not worth the frustration of watching a decent movie that could have been something really fun and special.
