When a pseudo-historical movie gets it wrong

Twelve years ago with the publication of The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel and the upcoming star-packed movie on its way I decided to create a pool of primary sources on the topic, both in the collections of the Eisenhower Presidential Library where I was an archivist and in other repositories. Monuments Men and the Allied Effort to Save European Cultural Heritage is still available and makes for great reading.

I just tried rewatching the movie again and quit after a few minutes. I guess if I hadn't spent so much time pulling together sources for people to delve into the real events, I probably would have found the movie entertaining. But it makes it look like the whole thing was thrown together after the June 6, 1944 Normandy invasion a bit haphazardly. In fact, the Monuments Men effort had been put together in 1943. There's so much more to this effort that the dumbed down, oversimplied and fictionalized mess of the movie.

But that's Hollywood for you, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.