For a while now I've been watching old films that I remember loving the first time around. Surprisingly, I didn't care for some and even found a couple to be unwatchable.
This week I watched The Monuments Men and I loved every minute of it, just like I did the first time around in 2014. If you cherish historic art and enjoy World War II history, you will like this film.
Hitler was making the greatest treasure heist in history. And what his men couldn't confiscate, they were ordered to destroy... this thousand years of culture.
President Roosevelt tasked a group of seven middle-aged art experts with rescuing artistic masterpieces from these Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. These men, led by Frank Stokes (portrayed by George Clooney who also directed the movie) were museum directors, curators, and art historians. They had difficulty with the "real" G.I.s who could not grasp the importance of this endeavor.
They split up into several European cities to chase down the art. One item, Michelangelo's Madonna and Child statue in Bruges, Belgium, exchanged hands several times. Bruges is one of my favorite cities in Europe.
At the end of the film, decades after the war, an elderly Frank Stokes takes his grandson to see the statue in Bruges. However, this time he is portrayed, not by George Clooney, but by his dad in real life dad, Nick Clooney.
By the way, another of my favorite movies is In Bruges. It's about a couple of hit men who are sent to Bruges to kill a guy but, instead, they fall so in love with the city that their lives and changed.
I might watch it next.
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