Monuments Men Movie Review

Monuments Men stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanhett and it is based on the true story of an unlikely World War II platoon.  They were tasked to go into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners. The platoon was made up of seven museum directors, curators, and art historians who were all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1.  The Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the mandated destruction of 1000 years of culture with the fall of the Reich, these men would risk their lives to protect and defend some of mankind’s greatest achievements including Michelangelo’s “Madonna and Child”, Jan Vermeer’s painting “The Astronomer” and so much more.

 

I’m not a big history buff, so I don’t know a lot of the facts surrounding these events (okay, I had no idea all this art was even stolen).  What I really appreciated is that at certain parts in the movie there were markers that the majority of us would know and they film makers made sure to point them out so you could figure what point in the war we were at.  It was really helpful.

I’m not a huge fan of war movies, but this wasn’t the typical war movie.  It was more of a history lesson with a bit of action.  I especially loved the banter back and forth between Bill Murray and Bob Balaban’s characters…it kept the movie funny and broke up the tension of some sticky situations with a little laugh.

Should you take the kids? Probably not the little ones. It’s not overly violent…most the war scenes and shootings were off camera and so you don’t actually see much of that.  Yes, there is some death and some swear words, it is a war movie afterall.  What will keep me from taking the kids is all the dialogue and slow parts.  The slow parts are necessary for the story to progress, but it’s not going to keep the kids attention.  I’d stick with teenage and over so they are able to follow the storyline.  It’s a great way to introduce the story to older kids in a way that’s entertaining.

 

Monuments Men is rate PG-13 and opens today, February 7th, everywhere!

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Want to learn more…check out some of these books about the Monuments Men.

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend a sneak peak by my friend who writes at Choosing Love, who was actually invited (I was her +1). I was not asked to do a review, nor do the movie peeps know that I am doing this…I just wanted to share with you.