Clooney is director and actor in this fast-paced action drama inspired by Robert M. Edsel's book "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History," which revolves around the Monuments, Art and Archives Program, established in 1943 by the Allies to protect cultural property located in war zones.
It was a team of about 400 men who were well past the age of being called up or volunteering for war.
But who did not resist the call when they were invited to collaborate with the military forces in an effort to safeguard works of art and historical and cultural monuments from war damage with the idea that, when the war was over, the pieces stolen or hidden by the Nazis would be sought out so that they could be returned to their rightful owners.
Hitler was a great art lover and a frustrated artist. One of his projects was to make of the small city of Linz, in Austria, a metropolis whose center was to be constituted by the Führermuseum, which was to house the best works of universal art, which, taking advantage of the war, were plundered from museums and private collections to pass to warehouses strongly guarded by the Nazis.
Based on true events and set at the end of World War II, the film is about the greatest art rescue in history, led by a motley crew of expert curators, architects, artists and historians who, though lacking in military training and skills, will have to participate in a suicidal mission: to infiltrate behind enemy lines to recover some of the world's most valuable works of art before they are destroyed at the fall of the Third Reich.
"The Monuments Men," shot almost entirely in Germany, was the fifth feature film in which Clooney directed and acted, as well as the second in which he also co-wrote the screenplay and co-produced.
His idea was to bring to light the role played by members of the Monuments, Art and Archives Program, whose role in history is really very little known, so that one merit of the film is to offer a very different perspective on the war than usual.
The film was presented out of competition in the official feature section of the Berlin Film Festival. For this film, Clooney won the Heartland International Film Festival Award for a truly moving film; and Alexandre Desplat won the World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year.
She was also nominated for the International Film Music Critics Award for Best Original Score for a Dramatic Film; the Hollywood Post Alliance Award for Outstanding Color Gradation in a Feature Film; and the Guild of Music Supervisors Award for Best Music Supervision for a Trailer.
