The Monuments Men: Film Analysis
In 2014, a film called, “Monuments Men” was created based on a true story that is illustrated in, “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History” by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter. This film was about seven men on a mission to recover the art that Hitler has stolen from all over Europe and hidden in Germany. This movie starred George Clooney as Frank Stokes, Matt Damon as James Granger, Bill Murray as James Campbell, John Goodman as Walter Garfield, Jean Dujardin as Jean Claude Clermont, Bob Balaban as Preston Savitz, Hugh Bonneville as Donald Jeffries, Dimitri Leonidas as Sam Epstein, and Cate Blanchett as Claire Simone.
The main characters were these seven men and one French woman. The seven men were renounced art scholars from around the Allied forces of America, Britain, France, and a Jewish German refugee, but also, included Claire Simone, who helped these men find the most famous pieces of art with her knowledge and records. Frank Stokes convinced President FDR that the art was worth saving, so he put together his group of the best and brightest, who were not already fighting in the war. …show more content…
They began their search a month after the D-Day invasion in July of 1944 and looked in key cities hoping to get there before the Nazi SS. Millions of art pieces were stolen and hidden, but this group looked in the cities they had circled on a map they got off a Nazi officer. Luckily the Jewish German refugee, Sam Epstein, notices that the cities circled had symbols next to them that were at salt, potassium, and copper mines throughout Germany, where the art was hidden. However, along the way they did lose two men, this small, insignificant group of art scholars were shot at just as much as the soldiers fighting in battle. In the beginning of the movie Mr. Stokes said that it was not worth it to lose lives over art, but this quest turned into exactly that. When the Third Reich fell over five million pieces of art were preserved and returned to their rightful museums, including sculptures by Michelangelo and paintings by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, some masterpieces were lost when Nazis started burning them when they discovered that the Allies knew where they were hiding the art, but for the most part they were saved.
This film pertains to the subject recently studied in class because it discusses the issues overseas that the Allied forces encountered and followed a mission issued by President Roosevelt before he passed and carried out by a fellow American scholar, Stokes.
This taught me that during this period of war that the fighting and the effort at home was not all of the war. Some of it meant looking for inanimate objects that did not seem worth saving considering the possible cost of a life. These men said that they never really felt like a soldier until they suffered the losses of one when they lost two friends. I think this idea put the war into a different perspective because this was a time when everyone was a soldier, even if they did not know it, and everyone was playing a part in the war, even if it did not affect them
directly.
I did not notice any discrepancies that were discussed in class, but I do know that this mission was real due to my previous study done in my sophomore world history class. I am sure that there were some errors given that it is a dramatized reenactment of these events, but I am unsure of what they since this assignment was not discussed, probably rightfully since it most likely will not appear on the AP test, but it is quite interesting. I enjoyed the film because it is something almost unheard of considering this era and it was a rather good depiction of the events from what I know. I particularly enjoyed the perspective that it put it in, especially when they lost two from their group because that was when they really felt like soldiers when they were the whole time. I think at this point is when they felt assured that the work they were doing was worth it, given that one of the two dead passed trying to save a masterpiece. Many of these movies put me in the position that makes me understand a little bit more every time what some of those people might have felt fighting, dying, and losing friends and family. This feeling is intriguing and I would like to know what it feels like, to peer around a corner and not know who or what was behind it, or feel like your cause was given a meaning, but given how traumatizing this war affected my loved ones, I think it is best not to know and better to wonder.
The main characters were these seven men and one French woman. The seven men were renounced art scholars from around the Allied forces of America, Britain, France, and a Jewish German refugee, but also, included Claire Simone, who helped these men find the most famous pieces of art with her knowledge and records. Frank Stokes convinced President FDR that the art was worth saving, so he put together his group of the best and brightest, who were not already fighting in the war. …show more content…
They began their search a month after the D-Day invasion in July of 1944 and looked in key cities hoping to get there before the Nazi SS. Millions of art pieces were stolen and hidden, but this group looked in the cities they had circled on a map they got off a Nazi officer. Luckily the Jewish German refugee, Sam Epstein, notices that the cities circled had symbols next to them that were at salt, potassium, and copper mines throughout Germany, where the art was hidden. However, along the way they did lose two men, this small, insignificant group of art scholars were shot at just as much as the soldiers fighting in battle. In the beginning of the movie Mr. Stokes said that it was not worth it to lose lives over art, but this quest turned into exactly that. When the Third Reich fell over five million pieces of art were preserved and returned to their rightful museums, including sculptures by Michelangelo and paintings by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, some masterpieces were lost when Nazis started burning them when they discovered that the Allies knew where they were hiding the art, but for the most part they were saved.
This film pertains to the subject recently studied in class because it discusses the issues overseas that the Allied forces encountered and followed a mission issued by President Roosevelt before he passed and carried out by a fellow American scholar, Stokes.
This taught me that during this period of war that the fighting and the effort at home was not all of the war. Some of it meant looking for inanimate objects that did not seem worth saving considering the possible cost of a life. These men said that they never really felt like a soldier until they suffered the losses of one when they lost two friends. I think this idea put the war into a different perspective because this was a time when everyone was a soldier, even if they did not know it, and everyone was playing a part in the war, even if it did not affect them
directly.
I did not notice any discrepancies that were discussed in class, but I do know that this mission was real due to my previous study done in my sophomore world history class. I am sure that there were some errors given that it is a dramatized reenactment of these events, but I am unsure of what they since this assignment was not discussed, probably rightfully since it most likely will not appear on the AP test, but it is quite interesting. I enjoyed the film because it is something almost unheard of considering this era and it was a rather good depiction of the events from what I know. I particularly enjoyed the perspective that it put it in, especially when they lost two from their group because that was when they really felt like soldiers when they were the whole time. I think at this point is when they felt assured that the work they were doing was worth it, given that one of the two dead passed trying to save a masterpiece. Many of these movies put me in the position that makes me understand a little bit more every time what some of those people might have felt fighting, dying, and losing friends and family. This feeling is intriguing and I would like to know what it feels like, to peer around a corner and not know who or what was behind it, or feel like your cause was given a meaning, but given how traumatizing this war affected my loved ones, I think it is best not to know and better to wonder.