Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Monuments Men

(2014)

Most of the reviews pointed out how old-fashioned this one is, and I can’t disagree. It has no impossible stunts or bloodbaths, which is cool, because the unit this story is based on operated mostly within our lines. Their mission was to rescue art works that had been looted and hidden away by the Nazis. And as they retreated, they often destroyed it all, as they had already destroyed the works deemed “degenerate” by Hitler and his low-brow cronies, who probably would have appreciated Day-Glo paintings of Elvis on black velveteen. (Only Herman “Fatso” Goering liked more modern art.) It’s well-made, and I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it delved deeply enough into the question of how many lives is a great masterpiece worth? None, in my opinion.