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The Monuments Men (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film score by Alexandre Desplat
Released	February 4, 2014
Recorded	October 22–23, 2013
Studio	Abbey Road, London
Genre	Film score
Length	60:32
Label	Sony Classical
Producer	Alexandre Desplat Dominique Lemonnier
Alexandre Desplat chronology
Philomena (2013) The Monuments Men (2014) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Monuments Men (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2014 film The Monuments Men directed by George Clooney. The film's musical score is composed by Alexandre Desplat and consists of a huge symphonic orchestral score, recorded within a short span of time. It was released through Sony Classical Records on February 4, 2014 to critical acclaim.

Development

The Monuments Men is Desplat's second collaboration with Clooney as a director, after previously working on The Ides of March (2011). When Clooney offered him the script, Desplat felt excited as it reflected the scores of Maurice Jarre and Elmer Bernstein from the 1950s and 1960s, adding that Clooney wanted the film to reflect the timeline instead of making an epic war film. Hence, Desplat wanted to curate a narrative score that resembled war music, which consisted of "a big symphony orchestra that can go from a solid, masculine, brassy sound to a very intimate, solo flute and harp duet." Since, most of the classical war scores had been curated by symphonists who had the heritage of military bands and marches, brass music played an important role to the orchestral music. The score was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, with Desplat conducting the 110-piece orchestra and was entirely recorded within 16 hours.

Critical response

Calling it as a "delightful nostalgic score", Thomas Glorieux of Maintitles wrote "The Monuments Men is at times incredibly wonderful to listen to, a bit long, but a nostalgic enjoyable attempt nonetheless." Timothy Monger of AllMusic wrote "With dozens of film scores in a myriad of styles to his credit, Desplat is appropriately tasteful, adapting to a classic period style while still adding his own distinctive flourishes." Filmtracks.com wrote "Even if you don't find yourself in a position to enjoy this score for its affable retro styling alone, then at least you should be able to derive some pleasure from deconstructing it intellectually."

David Edelstein of New York called it as a "lighthearted marching-drum-and-woodwind score". Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com called it as "alternately rousing and lyrical". Scott Foundas of Variety described it as "one of his most conventional scores" describing it as "a John Williams-esque Americana fanfare". Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Alexandre Desplat's score is uncharacteristically sentimental." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described it as "jaunty". Alonso Duralde of TheWrap called it as "vintage-sounding".

Track listing

Awards and nominations

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

• Music composed and conducted by – Alexandre Desplat
• Music producers – Alexandre Desplat, Dominique Lemonnier
• Orchestra – London Symphony Orchestra
• Orchestration – Alexandre Desplat, Jean-Pascal Beintus, Nicolas Charron, Sylvain Morizet, William Ross
• Orchestra leader – Carmine Lauri
• Programming – Jongnic Bontemps, Romain Allender
• Recording – Peter Cobbin, Jonathan Allen, Simon Rhodes
• Mixing – Peter Cobbin
• Music editor – Gerard McCann
• Pro-tools operator – John Barrett
• Music co-ordinator – Xavier Forcioli
• Design – WLP Ltd.

Notes

1. also for Godzilla, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Marius, Philomena, Venus in Fur, Zulu

References

1. "Alexandre Desplat to Reunite with Wes Anderson on 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'". Film Music Reporter. November 15, 2012. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
2. Romano, Andrew (February 11, 2014). "Meet Alexandre Desplat, Hollywood's Master Composer". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
3. Markovitz, Adam (August 12, 2013). "George Clooney talks 'The Monuments Men'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
4. Patches, Matt (February 20, 2014). "The Most In-Demand Composer in Hollywood Shares Stories About His Latest Collaborators". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
5. Horn, John (October 22, 2013). "George Clooney's 'The Monuments Men' pushed to 2014". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
6. Waxman, Sharon (October 23, 2013). "George Clooney Struggles With Tone of 'Monuments Men': 'It's Been a Bit of a Dance' (Exclusive)". TheWrap. Archived from the original on February 14, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
7. Glorieux, Thomas. "Alexandre Desplat: The Monuments Men". Maintitles.net. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
8. Monger, Timothy. "The Monuments Men [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] Review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
9. "The Monuments Men (Alexandre Desplat)". Filmtracks.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
10. Edelstein, David (January 30, 2014). "Museum Piece". New York. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
11. Seitz, Matt Zoller (February 7, 2014). "The Monuments Men movie review (2014)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
12. Foundas, Scott (January 29, 2014). "Film Review: 'The Monuments Men'". Variety. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
13. McCarthy, Todd (January 29, 2014). "The Monuments Men: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
14. Travers, Peter (January 31, 2014). "The Monuments Men". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 25, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
15. Duralde, Alonso (January 29, 2014). "'The Monuments Men' Review: George Clooney's Retro WWII Adventure Could Use Old-Fashioned Rewrite". TheWrap. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
16. Chagollan, Steve (August 13, 2014). "Arcade Fire, Alex Ebert, Pharrell Williams Among World Soundtrack Awards Nominees". Variety. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
17. "Alexandre Desplat Proves a Perennial Fave at Gent's World Soundtrack Awards". October 27, 2014. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
18. Alexandre Desplat (2014). The Monuments Men (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Media notes). Sony Classical Records.

• 2014 soundtrack albums
• Alexandre Desplat soundtracks
• Sony Classical Records soundtracks
• 2010s film soundtrack albums