Monument Men

[ketelone]

I saw Monument Men today. Not bad but a little slow. If these guys didn't recapture these masterpieces and artifacts, our world would be a much lesser place.

[ketelone]

Sorry, I just noticed, it's 'Monuments Men.'

[snake]

Shame that the reviews are not better.

George Clooney usually does good movies both acting and directing, and am sure that this must be disappointing for him as well.

Even so, a great subject, and I will definitely check it out.

[Jnewboy]

I have not seen it yet but its a great subject. I have always wanted someone to make a good movie on the subject, a serious movie that addresses more than the lost paintings but major stuff like the Amber Room. I would make it in the same style as the Da Vinci Code where one thing causes a chain reaction that leads someone to uncovering it in the end even if they dont know what they are looking for.

This movie looks like more of an action comedy adventure movie and sometimes movies like this dont do well because they are not a great action movie or a great comedy. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost ark is one of the only movies I have ever seen that was able to pull this formula off and do it well.

[tmanthegreat]

I've traveled extensively in Europe and been to a ton of major art museums. Quite a bit of what I saw were artifacts that had at one time been looted or repatriated by the Nazis. I recently saw a documentary about the Monuments Men and it described Florence, Italy as one of their biggest challenges - practically the entire city is a work of art and the Germans fought for every inch of it... I've also seen Monte Casino (rebuilt), the monastery in central Italy that was destroyed by Allied bombs.

On a similar subject, scholars actually have a pretty good idea of what happened to the Amber Room... It was in the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) when it was captured by the Germans and taken to the City of Konigsburg in East Prussia (now Poland). It was likely being stored in the crypt of the main castle there when the Soviets came in 1945, captured the city, and torched the castle. Stalin, as he was to do so many other times, fabricated a false story about it being hidden somewhere else in Germany to avoid the embarrassment that his forces had likely burned up their own treasure. Stalin's rumors persisted and there are still people looking for it today. The German government has since built an exacting replica of the Amber Room, which was given to Russia as a conciliatory gesture about a decade ago.

[Dauntless]

It looks good enough to go see.
I saw an interview on PBS Charlie Rose with George Clooney about the movie.
He said he was trying to give it a Kelly's Hero's flavor.

Interesting subject though. I guess every once and a while they find some of this artwork that was appropriated by former German officers. Hitler hated the avant-garde art of the period and considered it deviant and had much of it destroyed, whilst some Germans saw the value in it and saved it, in a manner of speaking. At least it survived being destroyed even though ill-gotten.