Watch The Rape of Europa For Free

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

After watching George Clooney's Monument Men in the movie theater, I decided to revisit the documentary "The Rape of Europe" as it had been quite a few years since I saw it , I found it on DVD in the public library.The documentary is much more informative and I think more fascinating than the movie. It is also much more thought provoking. Unfortunately it seems like art is more important than humans. Beside some Egyptian mummies or Neanderthalers there is no price tag attached to a human being (well, of course insurance agencies and divorce lawyers attach price tags), while pieces of art seem to get astronomic prices the longer they survive. And while human trafficking is a huge and booming business, the individual human being sold does not bring the same money as a piece of good art brings. But if a Klimt belongs in a museum or makes the grandchildren of the painter's model multi-multi-millionaires was not the big question I was asking myself after viewing this documentary again.What really stuck in my mind was one question raised by one art professor: What if the Viennese art school would have admitted Hitler? Would that have changed the world as we know it today? I am tempted to say yes. One little decision altered or ended the lives of millions of people and destroyed multiple countries.Hitler would have concentrated his energies on becoming a successful artist, maybe he would have learned to appreciate modern art with the proper training It is frightening to think that one small little thing like a decision of an admission committee could have changed the world....Though it seems so difficult to me today to understand the charisma of Hitler , it is also difficult for me to understand that G.W. Bush got elected twice, that the Kardashians are so popular and that we fall for advertising. One can only understand what happens in the context of the time when it happened. . .

Greetings again from the darkness. Watching the 2014 release of The Monuments Men inspired me to re-watch this fascinating documentary on the same subject. Thanks to the interviews of real life Monuments Men like Harry Ettlinger, Kenneth Lindsay, Charles Parkhurst and Bernard Taper, we better understand the overwhelming mission these folks were on, and how even today, some battles wage on over the rightful owners of artwork.To drive home the point that there is more at stake than just pride, the case of Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" is studied. Adele's niece continued her litigation against Austria until a court finally awarded her the painting (and 3 others). She sold "Adele" for $135 million to a collector. So clearly the cause is not just for mother country. Economics play a huge role. Regardless, the more interesting portion of the story is the relentless pursuit of stolen artwork, artifacts, furniture and collectibles, and the attempts to return them to the rightful owners. That, combined with the devastating architecture destruction brought on by WWII, really make it a bittersweet story.The breathtaking photographs and archival film footage provide a clear understanding of the breadth of destruction. Seeing the before and after of the Monte Cassino monastery is just crushing. Gaining perspective on the damaged frescoes, some dating to 1360, when Pisa's Camposanto was bombed drives home the significance of culture and history. Seeing the aftermath of the bombing of Florence's iconic bridges brings tears to the eyes. The most impressive piece is that so much of Europe has been rebuilt in the past 7 decades. Maybe that goes to answer the question of whether a human life is worth protecting art. People survive and find a way ... even if Rafael's "Portrait of a Young Man" is still missing.This is based on the book by the Lynn Nicholas, and the film does a terrific job of presenting how the war impacted Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Poland. It's also tough to reconcile, as one of the Monuments Men attempts, the idea that the Nazis were so careful with the stolen artwork while simultaneously exterminating so many Jewish people. Maybe things would have been different if a young Adolph Hitler had been accepted to art school.

Loosely centered on the well-known theft, from public and private collections, of great artworks and cultural artifacts by the Nazis, the Soviets, and common criminals during World War II and their removal in part to secret storage locations in Germany, Austria, and Russia, this documentary also touches on halting Allied war efforts to avoid the destruction of national heritage sites in Italy, still on-going restoration efforts after the war, issues of cultural patrimony (e.g., "Who owns, or should own, this stuff? The world? The nations from which it was plundered? The nations which suffered during wartime, won the war, and now claim it as restitution? Innocent purchasers for value? Religious communities? Descendents of long-dead wealthy collectors and benefactors who left it in place when they evacuated their homes?"), and the tens of thousands of artworks still unaccounted for. Hitler and Goering were collectors as well as thieves. Is it possible that the act of collecting is itself not totally above suspicion? Any of these minor themes, and others, would have made for an interesting documentary in itself. As it is, the documentary we see will please most history buffs and art fans. The historical footage is excellent -- Hitler was always Hitler, but pompous Goering surrendering his handgun momentarily showed fear -- the contemporary interviews of wartime survivors and art historians add flavor and insight, and the images of lost and found artworks are alternately chilling and thrilling. This film is accessible to an audience that may barely recognize the names da Vinci and Matisse. It tells something of the same story as "The Train" (1964) without the same level of fictional excitement.

I think somebody should make a documentary about the British Museum for starters. Let's count the artifacts there, they have looted. When the Prussians started to push the Germans back they took almost everything from the countries they marched trough. War is brutal and mindless. All war waging countries will loot & destroy. Growing up in eastern Europe I have a bit different opinion about WW2.I liked the archive footages, they were great. The narrator did a good job, but I liked it more with some real documentary firmness. Anyways, you should see the movie with an opened mind and make the judgment yourself after it.