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The Monuments Men | 2014 | PG-13 | - 2.5.5

Based on a true story: A small group of specialists are assigned to rescue art stolen by the Nazis during World War II and to return the items to their owners. With George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban, Dimitri Leonidas, Justus von Dohnányi and Holger Handtke. Directed by Clooney. [1:58]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A painting of a nude woman shows her bare breasts and abdomen and her hand covers her genitals. People are shown dancing on a stage and women's outfits reveal cleavage. A woman wears a low-cut blouse that reveals her bare upper chest (no cleavage is visible). A man is shown painting a woman wearing a skimpy outfit (cleavage and bare legs to the upper thigh are seen) on the side of an airplane and the words "Femme Fatale" are painted next to her. A man is shown sculpting a female form and the cleavage and outline of the bust are evident. A sculpture of a male infant shows his bare chest and abdomen along with his genitals.
 A woman asks a married man (they are having a candlelit dinner at her apartment) if he is a good husband and she seems to be trying to seduce him; she repeats, "It's Paris...," he holds her hand and tells her that he should leave (he does leave).
  A man tells another man that his wife told him to give the man a kiss, but that "I am not prepared to do." A man tells another man to "Give that Claire a kiss," and he replies "Oh, she'd like that."

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A man hiding in a church shoots another man stealing a sculpture in the arm; the second man shoots the first man twice and we see him with a bloody wound on his chest, as he breathes heavily before he dies. Two men carry another man on a stretcher to a filed hospital and we see a very bloody chest wound and another very bloody leg wound; the doctor calls for a clergyman and it is implied that the wounded man dies while another man holds his hands (the hands are shown blood-covered). Two men stop at the side of a road and get out of their vehicle; one sees many armed men in the woods along the side of the road and calls to the other man; they get back in the vehicle as gunfire breaks out from both sides of the road and one of the men is shot in the abdomen (we see a lot of blood); the uninjured man is shown holding the wounded men, now dead, the next morning (they both have blood on them) and he is later shown walking with a limp and using a cane (he was presumably also wounded in the gunfire exchange).
 A man steps on an unexploded mine and two other men place bricks totaling the man's weight on the other side of the mine; the man then steps off the mine and there is a small explosion and a flash (no one is injured).
 Three men are shot at outside a church; one lays cover fire while the other runs toward the building where the shots originated; the man in the building enters a bombed out apartment and finds a young boy with a gun, whom he drags out by the arm (the boy is not harmed). A man on a train shoots at a woman standing on an overpass (she is not struck). A man is nervous when two other men with guns approach him (it is OK). A woman is frightened when she arrives home to find a man in her apartment; the man questions and threatens her, then tells her that her brother was shot dead that morning and that his body is in a river. We hear that two priests were shot and killed.
 Armed men hold several priests at gunpoint while stealing a sculpture from the church. We see many young people being held in a holding area with barbed wire at the top of the wire walls. A man places a handgun on a dining table while questioning another man about the art hanging in his home.
 A man goes outside to urinate (we see him reaching to unfasten his pants and nothing is shown); he is interrupted by a young man holding a gun on him; another armed man joins them and they all sit down on the ground and smoke cigarettes together before the first gunman runs into the woods and the other two men go back inside (no one is harmed).
 Men with flame throwers set fire to many pieces of art in a storage area (we see the rubble and ash later). Several men build a bonfire and throw paintings on the flames. We see a funeral for a man and his wife and young child are shown grieving.
 Many people struggle to shore up a wall after bombings in Italy (we hear ongoing explosions and rubble is thrown) and we see that "The Last Supper" painting is on the wall. Priests are shown removing art from church walls and crating them up; we then hear that the Germans are coming. Rubble is shown at the entrance to a mine that has been blown.
 A man yelps and holds his cheek when he breaks a tooth while eating jerky; we see him at the dentist's office later and hear him yell again when the dentist uses a hammer to remove the tooth. A man is shown with his arm in a sling.
 Several armed men offload from a boat onto a beach and walk through an area where a battle apparently took place. Four men walk into a mine where they find 16,000 pieces of art; two men enter a storage room and find stolen gold and jewelry. A truck full of wooden crosses is unloaded (markers for fallen soldiers).
 A commander yells at two men about their orders and he says that he will not provide any assistance. A man's commander yells at him about his orders and his mission. A man questions and threatens a prisoner and describes how he will be tried for war crimes and hanged, and then buried in an unmarked grave. A Jewish man talks about his grandfather being taken to Dachau concentration camp.
 A man asks, "Do we get to kill anyone? Because I'd really like to kill someone." A man talks about war and that many lives are lost along with their greatest achievements; he goes on to say that by destroying a people's history, it's like they never existed. A man shows a map of German invasions during World War II while making a presentation. A man talks about determining what the army can and cannot blow up. A man is alarmed when he is told that bullets being fired in a training ground are not blanks. A man tells another man to "try not to get shot." People talk about art being stolen and hidden. A man talks about his son fighting with the resistance in France. We hear that Russians steal stolen art from the Germans and plan to keep is as war reparations. A man asks another man, "You wish that German had shot you now?" We hear that 5 million pieces of art and possessions were recovered.
 Two women spit in a champagne glass, and then one gives the glass to their boss and he drinks champagne from it.

LANGUAGE 5 - 1 possible F-word (uttered during an explosion and it is not clear), 13 scatological terms (4 are spoken in French and are not translated), anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, 2 derogatory terms for Germans, name-calling (drunk, trophy brigade, Monuments Men), exclamations (screw the Germans), 6 religious profanities (GD), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus Christ, God willing, Jesus, Oh God).

SUBSTANCE USE - We see a champagne bottle in an ice bucket and we see one man drink a glass while another holds a glass filled with champagne, people in a bar are shown drinking alcohol, a man makes a joke about another man shaking (a reference to his being an alcoholic), and two men drink a toast (presumably wine). Men and women in a bar are shown drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in several scenes, a doctor smokes and coughs in an exam room while examining a man who is also smoking, men in a meeting room smoke cigarettes, men preparing plans for retrieval of art are shown smoking cigarettes in many scenes, military personnel are shown smoking cigarettes in many scenes, a woman is shown rolling and smoking cigarettes in a number of scenes, a man has a cigarette dangling from his mouth in a couple of scenes, and a man smokes a cigarette while interrogating a man even though he says he does not smoke.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - World War II, Nazi Germany, Catholic Church, preservation of art, family, home, modern society, second chances, alcoholism, Geneva Convention, war crimes, disgrace, culture, Battle of the Bulge, reparations, dignity, war's end.

MESSAGE - Art is part of culture and history and should be maintained so as not to lose a sense of a time and the people in it.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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