TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Ed This famous film from 1961 features some of the most familiar faces of the period, most of which are recognizable by viewers who are old enough. (I only first saw it several nights ago on PBS.) The star of this film is, of course, Spencer Tracy as chief judge Dan Haywood soon after he played, in effect, lawyer Clarence Darrow in "Inherit the Wind" a similar role. Others following are Burt Lancaster whose stature as an actor was rising as he stretched himself more and more and eventually played the starring role in Visconti's "The Leopard" ( Il Gattopardo"). Richard Widmark played the prosecutor Tad Lawson and Maximillian Schell played the defense lawyer, Hans Rolfe. Montgomery Clift also appeared as a victim of the Nazi enforced sterilization law.The growing friendship between chief Judge Haywood and Frau Bertholt (Marlene Dietrich) seems to defy judicial protocol but it does give Dietrich, (In reality a noted enemy of the Third Reich), a chance to remind people of her association with the World War II song "Lili Marlene".At one point the character played by Richard Widmark introduces the familiar, still upsetting, graphic photos taken by the Allies at the liberation of the concentration camps.Towards the end of the film we get some appearances by, of all people, Judy Garland which should remind of us of her acting ability in addition to her stature as perhaps the greatest entertainer of the 20th Century! She plays a woman involved in what was a real case of an elderly Jewish man executed on trumped-up charges of defiling the "racial purity" laws of Nazi Germany.The first of the many real Nuremberg trials had many defendants but director Kramer concentrates only on four fictional criminals. Still, this film is a notable indictment of those who evaded their responsibilities towards humanity during one of the biggest blots on human history!

ElMaruecan82 It took more than a decade for Hollywood to handle the most painful aspect of World War II, the most difficult to watch from a cinematic perspective: the Holocaust. George Stevens made "The Diary of Anne Frank" and Otto Preminger made "Exodus". Stanley Kramer adopts a different angle converging with the streak of courtroom dramas that started in the late 50's: "12 Angry Men", "Witness for the Prosecution", "Anatomy of a Muder" or "Inherit the Wind", actually you have a dozen of classics made between 1957 and 1962, and "Judgment at a Nuremberg" is one of the high points, dealing with the German perspective, it can be subtitled: "Anatomy of a Holocaust".The film asks fundamental questions about the responsibility of German judges and prosecutors who sentenced to jail or sterilization, many civilians, out of obedience to the Third Reich regime. Set at the end of the Nuremberg trials in 1948, the film is a powerful documentary-like drama questioning the roles played by men who were not Nazi officers, who never pulled any trigger or activated any gas chamber, yet there's no doubt that their law-abiding attitude cautioned an evil ideology. And the real challenge is to ask ourselves a similar question: what would have we done, today, if we were to be ruled by a shamefully evil law, or at least, unethical.A look at the context: by the time these trials were conducted, all the Nazi top-management was wiped out but while Germany was turning the page of World War II, some people still had to answer for their crimes. Stanley Kramer deals with the trauma of the war without adopting an inquisitive tone and that's worthy of appreciation, the performance of Maximilian Schell as the lawyer of the four judges is pivotal, because this is a man whose competence is undeniable and inspires tacit admiration and obvious concerns from the prosecutor played by Richard Widmarck. Spencer Tracy as Judge Haywood observes the trial with impassible eyes, and from his rugged Yankee look, you can tell this is a man who's really asking question and wants to be convinced.The film is never as powerful as when you stop watching it from a collective aspect and see it from one individual perspective, one that makes things less black-and-white and more complex than they seem. Modern audiences are a few steps ahead of "Judgment at Nuremberg" but we can appreciate it as a serious drama full of passionately riveting exchanges especially between Schell and Widmarck who, in their own right, manage to have a point even if they stand for diverging opinions. And within a run-time of three-hour, a few other scenes emerge from the judicial routine. Montgomery Clift's awkwardness culminating with his broken voice confronting the impassible Haywood and asking if his mother was feeble-minded, Schell with the passiveness of a cold-blooded bully putting the final nail on his coffin by telling him that all he got is his word and facts can't speak for him.Schell can be rather destructive and finally loses his temper with frail and plump Judy Garland portraying a former Jew's mistress, but the scene works less than Clift's because it is to melodramatic proportions. It is interesting though that Kramer picked Clift and Garland to play worn-out characters, at a time where their career was already declining, and they were broken souls to some degree, there are many artistic licenses taken by Kramer, his loose handling of 'languages' issue, some flashy zooming, all create a rather bizarre self-conscious aspect. Even Burt Lancaster, as accused judge Emil Janning, chooses a pose that gives him a strange solemnity and makes his character uncomfortably sympathetic, oddly enough, the opposite happens with Marlene Dietrich's character that seemed to exist to give Haywood some German insights from a civilian perspective.It comes down to some banal scenes being brilliant, one in jail where a former Nazi camp worker explains it in the most casual way how gas chambers work. I love the fact that he's talking while he's still chewing as if the subject wasn't serious enough to speak with gravity. His casual tone made the point. And in the shot, you have the face of Werner Klemperer (known for Colonel Klink in "Hogan's Heroes"), he plays a despicable Nazi judge but his face is devastated, either this is the Nazi realizing the extent of the horror, but you can also see the man who survived Nazism and stopped acting in character. In both cases, it was a brilliant moment."Judgment at Nuremberg" is a dense movie that questions the extents of responsibility, by confronting the Americans to similar issues, how can they condemn German people while avoiding diplomatic complication at the dawn of Cold War? Schell is also the voice that allows pointing a finger on the complicity of the Allies, the application of eugenic laws, the bombing of Hiroshima and many items of discussion suggesting that Germany doesn't have the monopoly of horror. Still, the film manages to find the powerful ending by mentioning that it's not a matter of logic but of fairness. Schell might be 'right' in the absolute, but there comes a time where you've got to think with your heart. Which takes me back to the opening point about the evilness of law.I remember an interesting quote from "A Man for All Seasons": "This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!" The accused judges would have used this line as a defense; they did what they did for their own interest, because as legal scholars, they believed in law.But if in the name of Law, you give the Devil the benefit of the law, what if the Devil is the law?

Hitchcoc Spencer Tracy is at his best in this film. It is a post World War II trial of four judges who made decisions during the reign of Hitler. We get a look at the causes of the German people's allegiance to the horrible tyrant. We get to see why the decisions made by the judges were not so simple and we get a sense of their humanity. We don't get a simplistic presentation of them as monsters. They were men who were forced to make decisions that may not be moral but which put country first. There is a real sense that we are the flies on the walls of Spencer Tracy's office. He is determined to make the correct decision and decide whether these men should be executed. Their crimes are pretty black and white. The screenplay is remarkable. It took into account the realities of the time and the aftermath of the German people. One thing to remember is that after the war, the people themselves were forward thinking. Remarkable performances by Tracy and, particularly by Burt Lancaster.

George Wright Directed by Stanley Kramer, this movie is the story of a great courtroom drama involving judges of Nazi Germany. The judges, including a great jurist who became the Minister of Justice, administered laws aimed at imposing racial purity and mandatory sterilization. Human beings were treated as pawns in the hands of these men in the name of the Nazi state. The presiding judge, played superbly by Spencer Tracey, is a model of integrity. In the role of the former minister of justice is Burt Lancaster, a cut above the other small-minded tyrants who had no conscience in carrying out their cruel sentences to produce the master race. Despite his character and his great legal mind, he too was complicit in the tragedy. In fact, his sharp sense of revulsion about these crimes, made him even more repellant as he went against his own conscience and training. The other cast members include Maximilian Schell as the defence attorney, Richard Widmark as the prosecuting attorney, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift as key witnesses as well as victims, and Marlene Dietrich as the widow of wartime criminal already executed. All the cast are outstanding. While the story is overly long, we get a strong sense of the characters and how Tracey as a judge lived and mingled with the people of Nuremberg during his time in the occupied post-war country. The director, Stanley Kramer, made movies that showed people of conscience in conflict with the established order. He made use of great acting talents like Burt Lancaster and Spencer Tracey to issue strong statements of principle. This movie is a prime example of his great legacy as a director.