Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Judgement At NurembergDespite of its overlong runtime, there is a lot of material in it to feed off the audience for more than 3 hours. Abby Mann's adaptation might be the only strongest link in this feature excluding Stanley Kramer; it is a bit loose on depicting the intensity and the emotions behind all the drama and the editing too seems liberal (they could have narrowed it down to around 2 hours). On performance level, it holds up the expectation and delivers without flinching by great actors like Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell and Montgomery Clift. Judgement At Nuremberg remains true to its nature and loyal to the tone of the feature till the last frame which possibly is the only reason to encounter this experience for it lacks gripping screenplay, better editing and execution of a scene.

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.

Greetings from Lithuania."Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961) is definitely one of the most important movies ever made. It tells a true story, ask complicated questions and answers them - whether verdict was wright or wrong is up to viewers decision. In my opinion, verdict was lightest one they could have received - they all should have been hanged.Overall, "Judgment at Nuremberg" is a great movie, with superb performances by all involved, very involving script, great work by director. At running time 3 hours this movie never drags and is involving from start till finish, if you are of course ready for this material - "Judgment at Nuremberg" it is not an entertainment, it is important picture. A must see.

Are you responsible for heinous acts sanctioned by you even when you were "just following orders"? How true is the mantra "My country, right or wrong"? The movie delves deeply into this issues, while touching on topics of justice, race, eugenics, feeble-mindedness (WTF?), forced sterilizations, and other horrors of Nazi Germany. Also, a particularly poignant moment in the movie was the infamous Feldenstein Case, where a German woman was to testify. Just imagine the wrath of neighbors and fellow countrymen that person has to tolerate to contemplate doing this. This is just one nugget, the movie is chock full with these. Performances of Spencer Tracy (Chief Judge Dan Haywood) and Maximilian Schell (Hans Rolfe) were particularly good, the latter netting an Oscar for his stellar work.A classic movie with highly relevant lessons for today on so many issues. Can't recommend it enough.