The Rape of Europa

Cover of Blu Ray disc of  "The Monuments Men" movie.

I recently borrowed from the local public library the Blu Ray disc of the movie, The Monuments Men. If not for an unwritten (as of today) blog post by one of my nieces (Lissa Rose), I probably would not have seen this movie. But one day as I was browsing through the shelves, I came across this one and remembered her "post." Curious about the plot, I was surprised to read the movie is based on a real life group of Allied soldiers that are tasked with trying to save Europe's artwork from the Nazis as WWII was winding down.

The Rape of Europa by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1750)

Several years ago while puttering about in a NYC bookstore, I came across an intriguing book about the attempts to recover Europes's artwork at the end of WWII.  At the time, it was a story that I had never heard (although, the subject is somewhat dealt with in John Frankenheimer's classic 1964 film, The Train (starring Burt Lancaster). The book was provocatively titled, The Rape of Europa. The name of the continent of Europe is derived from the Greek mythological character, Europa.

Although I did not purchase the book, a few years later I found a documentary movie (on DVD) of the same title and story. While the documentary was fascinating, it was a bit dry and I confess that I nodded off towards the end.

George Clooney's movie was engaging. Perhaps because of the big name cast, I was quite aware that I was watching a movie. The acting and dialogue was choppy. Nevertheless, the subject matter carried the day. There were a couple of items about "The Monuments Men" movie that I found noteworthy.

There was a seduction scene involving Matt Damon 's character which didn't end in bed or adultery. Instead, the character stayed faithful to his marriage vows despite persistent attempts to sway him. This kind of virtue is unfortunately rare in today's Hollywood product.

Another point that jumped out at me was the reason given in the movie for the effort of the Monuments Men: to save the culture of Western Civilization from being destroyed. There was great fear that the Germans might deliberately destroy the artwork they had looted, or that the art would be destroyed during the fighting, or that the Russians would steal it. With hundreds of years of paintings, religious artwork, statues, etc., the culture of Western Civilization would be cast adrift and perhaps change who we are. That resonated with me because of all the changes happening in our society today as well as what is happening in the Middle East. I am afraid our society is losing its soul, in part because it is jettisoning its heritage; old thing are seen as having little value or relevance. The preservation of our culture is still a worthwhile and necessary action.

As a result of watching "The Monuments Men," I rewatched the documentary DVD (and dozed again toward the end of the first sitting. Really works better to watch it in several chunks). I also borrowed the book from the library and am about halfway done.

Ironically, the day before I got the movie from the library, an article was published in the NY Times about some missing artwork from WWII that was recently returned as a result of the Clooney movie.

So if you're not up to studying history, you might find watching Clooney's "The Monuments Men" to be a quick study and a somewhat rewarding movie.

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Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monuments_Men
http://themissytimesandmore.blogspot.com/2015/01/coming-soon-monuments-men.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Train_(1964_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Europa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(mythology) 
http://www.rapeofeuropa.com
http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org
http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/news/returning-the-spoils-of-world-war-ii-taken-by-our-side OR http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/arts/design/returning-the-spoils-of-world-war-ii-taken-by-our-side.html

Written Wednesday May 27, 2015