The Monuments Men – Review

Film, Reviews, Theatrical Reviews, Top Story

Clooney continues to make old timey films

George Clooney should’ve been a contemporary of Clark Gable, James Cagney and that generation instead of trading quips with Matt Damon and the current generation of actors. If there’s one truth that’s self evident in modern Hollywood it’s that Clooney is a classic movie star stuck in a post-classic environment. He’s got all the requirements that would’ve made him an icon if he’d come along to be at this point in his career in the 1950s and 1960s. That era of film star could’ve done a film like The Monuments Men and turned it into a classic of its time that aged considerably for another generation.

As it is The Monuments Men feels like a relic from the wrong time for a 2014 audience.

It’s a simple premise. Clooney is sent in to the European theater of World War 2 to save art and culture from being stolen by Nazis. He has a team with him (John Goodman, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville), all scholars and all profoundly not combat ready soldiers, to help him locate and rescue as much of this stolen art as they can. The group are essentially fish out of water, contending with an Allied forces command that doesn’t care about saving art as much as it does about actually winning at war and Nazis who are bound to destroy or steal as much of everyone else’s culture as they can.

Based off the novel of the same name, this feels like a film that would’ve been much more appropriate in tone and feeling in 1965 as a sort of wacky action comedy set in WWII as opposed to 2014. Much like Leatherheads Clooney has crafted a film like John Frankenheimer’s The Train or Mark Robson’s Von Ryan Express as opposed to one with modern sensibilities. I imagine Clooney is a massive fan of that era of film-making because he’s done a handful of films (Good Night and Good Luck, Leatherheads, The Good German) that focus on that era in a number of profound ways on a technical basis. Clooney wants to make the films he loves in the way he loves them in the style he holds dear.

It’s admirable in a way; Clooney is taking risks and making the films he wants to when he’s behind the camera. He even got Steven Soderbergh to make a film in that manner with him in the lead, as well. When Clooney is behind the camera he wants a certain aesthetic and sense that has long since been relevant in theatres. It’s gutsy but, much like Leatherheads, it just doesn’t work as well as he thinks it does.

Clooney wants this film to be a sort of modern Kelly’s Heroes, with the value of our art and culture a higher esteem than just stealing Nazi gold, but the time for that kind of film has gone. It still exists, of course, but the sort of tone and lightness Clooney wants to bring into this film makes the film feel much older than it should. This is also a film that really doesn’t get much out of its cast, either. Any time you have the ability to pair up Bob Balaban and Bill Murray for an extended period of time and only get a handful of scenes to do anything more than be background scenery it should be a crime against cinema.

The Monuments Men is a valiant effort by George Clooney. He wants to make a film like the ones he loves but that time is done.

Director: George Clooney
Writers: George Clooney and Grant Heslov based off the novel “The Monuments Men” by Robert M. Edsel
Notable Cast: George Clooney, John Goodman, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, Cate Blanchett