Monuments Men-What Makes a Civilization Civilized and Worth Saving?

Shorthand.  Historical shorthand.  Also, embellishment.  That is what Hollywood often does with historical stories to make them work as movies.  Some might complain about this, saying the approach to history is giving viewers inaccurate impressions about particular aspects of history.  Others counter with the fact that a point of history is being given attention in the first place and moviegoers unaware of this particular point now will be.  Ideally, they will be inspired to go out and do their homework and find out something about the actual history.  At the very least, they know it is out there.

I reluctantly fall in the camp of the latter, though I sympathize with the complaints of the former.  I'm a history buff and I always like being told of aspects of history I was previously unaware of.  And I will be honest, I was unaware of the activities of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program conducted by the United States Army during World War 2.  This outfit, composed of men and women, military and civilian, was dedicated to preserving cultural and historical artifacts in the nations caught up in the fury of war.

The movie depicts a set of characters representing actual members, or amalgams, of the Monuments Men, and if it can be historically matched, it would resemble the period early in the history of the unit, where it was a group of officer assembling a small group of experts.  They are sent into Europe on this mission of cultural and art preservation, as Hitler's forces seemed to be stealing or destroying many of these artifacts.  Also, use of bombs and artillery were doing many of these cultural markers no favors, either.

George Clooney, who also directed Monuments Men, plays Army Lieutenant Frank Stokes (loosely based on George L. Stout) He assembles his experts. who are played by Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban and others.  They are rushed through Basic Training to give them the fundamentals of soldiering and then are sent on their mission into the European theater to investigate suspected hiding places where the German Army has stashed their loot.

I sympathize with Clooney, as he had a difficult task here. to take a somewhat dry but important and overlooked aspect of the War in Europe during World War 2 and to make a viable two hour movie out of it.  He reached long with it, as the look is right, as is the feel.  The actors, all strong screen presences, are given understated roles, attempting to give just enough to humanize them, give a human element to the mission, but not overshadow it. 

The big question in this film is why go through all this just to save works of art?  Why put people in mortal jeopardy just to preserve paintings and statues?  Hitler sought to steal and destroy a culture, not only by murdering it's people, but eliminating it's voice, it's presence, expressed through art.  What is the point of preserving biological existence if you lose your art?  Or, is it a victory when you save a life, but lose a soul?

For pondering that question and pondering it seriously, this movie is worth your time.