I just saw the movie, “The Monuments Men.” If you love history, you need to see the movie. However, if you ever doubted the significance of knowing history, you REALLY need to see this movie.
Case in point, whoever
wrote the script — and since I didn’t bother looking that up, I’ll just blame
George Clooney — if you’re going to make a movie about a historical event, it’s
pretty important that you get your facts right. Just to be clear… The World War
1 Memorial is NOT in St. Louis. OK? I can at least take some satisfaction in
knowing you got the damned state right. Now that I’ve got that off my chest…
I fervently believe that the single most significant thing
that sets man apart as a species from every other animal that walks, flies or
swims on this earth is our development of written communication. Since the
beginning of time, when prehistoric men drew pictures on caves, more or less
saying, “I was here, and this is what I saw and did,” we have had the
capability of understanding what went before us.
Whether or not that knowledge is used for good or bad is a matter of choice. History tells us there were
many bad choices. And, THAT is why the knowledge of history is important. How do we know who
Plato was? How do we know who Michelangelo was? How do we know who Jesus was? And, how do we know who Hitler was?
Go see the movie. It may be one of the best 1.5 hours you’ll
spend all month. It’s entertaining, it’s heartbreaking, it’s uplifting, it’s
well written… except, of course, for getting the location of the World War 1
Memorial wrong. I’m still a little pissed about that.
But, more than anything, it
will show any doubters who think history is lame how wrong they are. I’m not saying everyone should be as
crazy about history as I am. But, I am saying we all need to respect its
importance and realize that we’re lucky there were, and still are, people who ARE
crazy about it… crazy enough to die saving it.
As George Clooney says in the movie, our achievements are our identity. And, without recorded history, whether it be paintings, sculptures, buildings or just words in a book, we have no identity.
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| The REAL Monuments Men |
Okay, I caught the comment on St. Louis as well but I believe they actually said "monument" and not "memorial." If what I found online is accurate, there is a WWI monument in St. Louis across from the VFW headquarters to memorialize the start of the organization and the WWI soldiers who started the group. I hope that is what they were going for and just didn't forget to do a bit of research!
ReplyDeleteGood point, Katana. It's possible I heard "memorial," when "monument" was the reference.
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