Jump to content

Monuments Men Reviews


bobgee
 Share

Recommended Posts

Oh..

 

And yes, I about fell out of my stadium seating when I say Clooney's Belgian helmet liner! The first word out of my mouth was NO WAY!!!!??? Even my wife nearly had a caniption.

 

If the release of this movie helps sell more of the books then it was worth it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would still argue that if you are going to make a historical movie, and slap 'based on a true story' you really should do your best to stick as close as possible to the truth. I've actually been on phone meetings with people in a far off land about this all week, and often it just means showing them a way to 'do it right' that gets them where they want to be. Not that I have any faith at all in that they'll follow the advice.

 

Personally, I would rather see the basic plot and story stick with history, and let some of the uniforms and such be a little off. The very, very sad thing is that people will see this film and assume it is totally accurate. And that is how they learn history. Then they read the book and find it "boring." (note some of the reviews on it at amazon).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the key words are "based on". It's a kind of disclaimer which implies up-front that there's an element of poetic licence in the telling of the tale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might be a technicality, but with regard to the wearing of Infantry officers' collar brass by Clooney and co. Technically, their brief would have come under the heading of "Civil Affairs". However this BOS did not officially come into being until the mid-50s. Therefore, during WW2, anyone fulfilling such duties would have been "unassigned" and would be expected to wear the appropriate Branch Unassigned collar brass, as below. The costume designer evidently didn't do his homework.

 

 

army_branch_insignia_officer.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read the book and I throughly enjoyed it, the book bought light to a pretty interesting and unknown aspect of the Second World War. I was pretty happy to hear that it was going to be made in to a movie. I have not seen the movie yet but I am looking forward to it. Whatever the merits or faults of this movie I am just glad that guys like George Clooney and others have enough pull to get Hollywood to even consider financing and making a WWII movie. However good or bad, at least the events depicted in Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Red Tails, The Monuments Men etc. sort of actually happened to real flesh and blood humans.

 

As Ian said above; "99% of the movie-going public are not serious students of modern military history as we collectors are." that is a gigantic understatement. A few years ago I had the misfortune to watch the movie "Enemy at the Gates" with my 20 year old nephew and a few of his friends. As the movie progressed it dawned on me, that those kids thought they were watching a movie about the Americans fighting the Russians. Where and when we supposedly fought the Russians they didn't really know, Vietnam, WWII or something. Those kids were so badly educated in history that they thought German soldiers they were watching in the movie were American Soldiers. None of them had ever heard of Stalingrad or what took place there. They couldn't tell me the combatants of WWII or even when it took place. Talking to them I realized history to them was just an unimportant jumble of names and dates. But, they did think that the explosions and machine guns were cool.

 

Anyway, I am just glad to see that any kind of WWII movie involving real humans is still being made even if it's only "based on true events". At least those events happened, and if interested you can always read more and straighten out the details. I am tired of the endless stream of movies about nothing but explosions - zombies - car crashes - robots -

super heros - vampires- wizards - trolls - elves, those are just based on fantasy and are to me pretty uninteresting. I mean no offense to any one that may enjoy those type of movies, this is just the opinion of one old crabby guy.

 

Thanks for letting me rant.

 

Dennis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife and I did dinner and a movie on Valentines day, yeah I'm a romantic too. It was going to be either Monuments Men or Lone Survivor, at the last minute I decided Lone Survivor. I still plan on seeing Monuments Men, but holy sh*t are frogmen really supermen? Good god I'm glad those guys are on our side!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johan Willaert

George STOUT, the real person behind George Clooney's character was actually USN...

 

Second from right on this picture with the other Monuments' Men

Note the gray band on helmet

 

 

monuments-men.jpg__800x600_q85_crop_subj

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George STOUT, the real person behind George Clooney's character was actually USN...

 

Second from right on this picture with the other Monuments' Men

Note the gray band on helmet

 

 

monuments-men.jpg__800x600_q85_crop_subj

 

Also the man on the far right looks like he was part of the Engineer Special Brigade based on the shoulder patch, the pocket patch and the jump boots.

 

-Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read the book end of last year and then just viewed the movie today. It was a long book and it would be very difficult to completely follow the book in a single movie. I enjoyed both the movie and the book. The book gave me a good idea of the over all story and the movie helped me visualize the store. Just good to see hollywierd turn out something other then superhero and love stories.

Just my 2 cents

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought the movie did a very good job educating the public on just another of the awful deeds the Nazi's did. Interesting the Germans are still holding on to some of the stolen art.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting the Germans are still holding on to some of the stolen art.

 

I think we might want to clarify that statement. There are works of art where the ownership is being challenged and the German government is trying to sort that out.

 

After the totalitarian regime of the Nazis, modern German laws make it very difficult to seize private property.

 

You can say that the thievery conducted by the Nazis have ironically now produced laws that make it difficult for the stolen property to be returned, but the present day government is going to be very thorough and proper in investigating these things.

 

On the other hand, they have moved to seize thousands of suspect pieces of art that have been hidden away for years in the apartment of a shady art dealer.

 

It is going to take years for all of this to be resolved. The trail of ownership on some of these works has been so muddled that some of them may never return to where they belong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw the movie last night, and I have to say it was pretty entertaining. The story was interesting, and the gear was pretty decent. The plastic/belgian/frankenliner on Clooney's D-bail had me chuckling. Also, the U.S. cartridge belts looked a little funky, like the cheaper variety of reproductions that have flaps that are incorrectly tapered (almost like the flap is nearly flat on the front instead of pointed). Will be interesting to read the book and find out more of the story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched it and enjoyed it, all-right you can pick faults with it, but then you can pick faults on many other films.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
audacia cum prudentia

I saw it at last, and all kit etc., aside I felt guilty that I'd dragged the wife and kid to see it with me as it was so dire as a film, obviously that is just my opinion but I really did feel like packing it in half way through.

 

I bought the book after to give it a fair chance and I didn't like the book either, it was as turgid as the film to me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I rather liked the movie. I went to see it twice. First time it was hard to listen to as there was someone in there movie theater constantly coughing. The second viewing I was the only one in the theater. I viewed it as plainly Entertainment and for the cost of $4 a shot to go to the movie it is a cheap and quick getaway and an easy evening of entertainment.I really didn't pay any attention too much of the details because it is what it is. Nothing is ever going to be 100 percent totally historically correct no matter how much money or effort is put into a film. These films are trying to tell a story and do it the best way they can. There is no way anything can be totally correct unless we were actually there in 1944. I thought it was an interesting subject addressing a very seldom recognized or little-known fact about an aspect of World War II.I don't know how anyone can really enjoy a movie if you're sitting there counting stitches or creases or shade of paint on a helmet or the type of patch on the shoulder etc.as I said it is mainly entertainment and each person will get what they want out of such films. I just appreciate the fact that someone is still wanting to make movies about World War 2 and not letting the history of these men and what they did fade away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...