[C]ompels attention and sustains interest as an examination of Adolf Hitler's obsession with claiming Europe's art masterworks for the "master race."

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 18, 2014

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Outstanding documentary on the theft and destruction of European masterpieces up to and during WWII.

| Oct 16, 2008

A fascinating history lesson about a generally-overshadowed aspect of the Second World War.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 22, 2008

A sometimes intriguing, sometimes maddening essay in the realm of informational overkill.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 6, 2008

The Rape of Europa boasts a strong narration by Joan Allen as it explores a less familiar aspect of World War II and the legacy left by the Nazis.

| Jun 20, 2008

The Rape of Europa is conventionally made, but it doesn't need cinematic sizzle because it's packed with so many fascinating factoids.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 30, 2008

The directors might have benefited by going smaller %u2014 for instance, focusing on two or three pieces of lost artwork and tracing their history. This art documentary simply isn't artful enough.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 29, 2008

It's a compelling journey into a soul-chilling past that might not be fully sorted out for generations to come.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 2, 2008

Its lack of both style and focus keeps it from being a success as a feature film.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 24, 2008

The Rape of Europa presents iconic images that viewers who aren't schooled in European art will recognize. That's a good way to connect with the film and understand the enormity of the pillage by Hitler and his cronies.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 11, 2008

The movie's three directors sap the drama out of the story with slow pacing, a dispassionate accumulation of facts and a too-dry narration by Joan Allen.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2008

Narrated by Joan Allen, the film is a remarkably comprehensive look at the cultural destruction that accompanied the slaughter.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2008

It's long for a documentary, almost two hours, but it has a big story to tell.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 6, 2008

This is a vast subject, ideally suited to a series of films. It's at its most moving when focusing on the small stories of individual artworks taken from their owners and restored to the families decades later.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 8, 2008

(T)his dense, dynamic documentary... takes on the high drama and difficult moral quandaries of Adolf Hitler's campaign to plunder the great artworks of Europe...

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 8, 2008

As thorough as the movie is, it could easily devote another hour to cases like this.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 1, 2008

There is a heart-rending feeling to this documentary, in part due to its sense of irretrievable loss.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 25, 2008

Filmmakers Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newnham do a superb job of telling this neglected story in vivid detail.

| Jan 11, 2008