I wrote this over a year ago. And tonight when I saw the film for a 2nd time, it really had an effect on me. So was I too shallow last time, or was I in the right frame of mind tonight? Either way The Nazi are still burning in Hell. And I do love a bit of art myself. I should have written a new piece today but the Pain monster was annoying me enough to make me lazy. There are over 1800 separate pieces of writing on this site, so read something else if the piece bores you.
Monument to Headstone ©
By
Michael Casey
I saw The Monuments Men on Film 4 via Freeview yesterday, and I was pleased, I enjoyed the story and though at times it seemed a little lightweight it really got me thinking. So George Clooney you did well, even if you do look like an older version of me, or is it Huw Edwards?
The story in Monuments Men is based on true events. The Nazis were hoovering up Art and stealing it, then hiding it in old mines, in the future there would be a museum all planned by Hitler himself, so the film told. What was so interesting was that by stealing Art, the Nazis were wiping out People’s very existence. There was a line in the film about if you take their Art away you steal and destroy their very soul. Think of Dash in Iraq right now, or Pol Pot in Cambodia, wiping the face of History, so only Evil remains. The Rape and Kill policy of conquest.
Another scene at the end of the film the Monuments Men found a drum of gold nuggets, only it was not gold nuggets, it was the gold fillings of Jews who had been murdered. Such tremendous Evil.
Now whatever I say next is trivial and worthless compared to what we are all thinking about now, the Evil men sink to. But I’ll try because if we all sink into despair then Evil has won. We have to remember to laugh, to think of the silly things that may us all Human.
Like giving a leaving present of a four pack of toilet paper to somebody who always hid in the toilet instead of working. Or a pair of silver foil pants because he once set fire to his trousers while having a cigarette while sat on the toilet on a night shift. How we all laughed.
Silly remembrances make us human, like the time you set fire to a fart in the middle of the dark of the night while the building was being refurbished, all the colours of methane or whatever it is. Sadly it was 20 years before mobile phones were invented otherwise it would have been filmed and live streamed. This would be called a Modern Art Installation and maybe win a Turner Prize, the Nazis would never have collected it and buried it down a mine. It would have been burnt just as Picasso and books were.
I’ve talked about either end of the spectrum to highlight, light and laughter compared to Evil. We all have our favourite possessions too, it may be a mint Pink Floyd album, it may be granddad’s old walking stick gathering dust in a corner, or a photo of dad riding a donkey at the beach, you had to really beg him before he got on the donkey. But now that photo is a really treasured possession. Think what would you save if the house was on fire, or a flood was coming. Its at these moments that you may discover for the very first what Love really means. You love the memories, the love behind the items. What is your Rosebud item?
They say that when you die, or are electrocuted your whole life flashes before you. So what will be on your film reel, will it be great works of Art that you were able to buy because you were a success in your life? Or will will it be thousands of smiling faces, lit like lights when they see you? Or even if it is just one smiling face, your wife, your lover, or your children.
If when you life goes to black there are tears, real tears from millions or even just one person, then you have not wasted your time on this earth. This is your Monument, the tears shed on your tombstone, here lies Michael Casey the Birmingham Writer, he may have been a totally useless man, but his stories made me more human, and for that I thank him and I shed tears on his grave.
