First Look: The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men, directed and starring George Clooney, hits the cinemas over Valentine’s weekend so we thought we’d take a look at what makes this film so special.

Not only does it have a stellar cast – George Clooney, Bourne‘s Matt Damon, Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville plus superstars John Goodman, Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett – but it’s also based on a true story. George Clooney plays Frank Stokes, the man directed to assemble an Army unit nicknamed the “Monuments Men”, comprised of seven museum directors, curators, and art historians to both guide Allied units and search for stolen art to return it to the rightful owners.

The Trailer

Storyline

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.