Simply Perfect

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG is a tense and provocative courtroom drama, which on a powerful and realistic way shows the nature of a war crimes trial.Four German judges and prosecutors stand accused of crimes against humanity for their involvement in atrocities committed under the Nazi regime. A military court convened in Nuremberg. A prominent lawyer and scientist has condemned so many people to death. Residents of Germany have, at the moment become blind and deaf to the crimes of the Nazi regime. However, each individual has a different view of the war and killings in the war. Each of the warring forces carries a certain part of the blame...Simple questions give quite confusing answers. Moral and responsibility of important people are faced with interests of their state. Civil servants have to respect inhuman and immoral laws!? Then and now. Nothing's changed. However, some people still have to answer for war crimes.This movie is full of strange contrasts. The main judge is generally a very curious. German defense counsel is an emotional person, who is concerned about the fate of his own people. The prosecutor is a very sharp and theatrical. Witnesses (ordinary people) are scared of both sides. Two words have emerged between curiosity, accusation, defense and emotions - an interest and compromise. There is no room for justice and right in these words. That's the point in this movie.Mr. Kramer has mostly focused on a legal access and political philosophy. Characterization is very good. The horror on the faces of the protagonists is a very disturbing and compelling.Spencer Tracy as Chief Judge Dan Haywood is a curious old judge, who wants to reveal the truth. However, he has realized something else - political logic. Maximilian Schell is a quite convincing as defense counsel Hans Rolfe, but his intentions and his attacks on witnesses are somewhat destructive. Richard Widmark is unscrupulous and decisive as prosecutor Col. Tad Lawson. Policy has cut off his wings at the end.Marlene Dietrich as Frau Bertholt is a sad and sensitive woman. Her character is an interesting view of the German aristocracy after World War II. However, she was closely related to the war and her perspective is truly amazing.Montgomery Clift (Rudolph Peterson) and Judy Garland (Irene Hoffmann-Wallner) are real tragic characters in a malicious court game. They are victims in the true sense of the word.Burt Lancaster (Dr. Ernst Janning) is an unusual serious defendant. His face reflects sympathy with the victims of the war. He is the voice of reason that nobody wants to hear.All actors have offered, more or less, impressive performances.This story is sketchy. Wars are, unfortunately, part of our everyday life. Innocent people are dying trapped between interests and compromises. A trashy trial will not open our eyes.

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.

The movie, even as a courtroom flick, is really not for just about everybody. It's because the movie with it's long duration tends to be boring at times with those long dialog. The intermezzo between the court room scenes didn't rally help much because those scenes don't really expand into something new beside being refreshing scenes between the court room sessions. But the depiction of the conflicting principles and interests is neatly done. The movie can really crash those in the court room, silently portraying it on the faces of the characters. The cinematography helped a lot in this effort by providing the right angles for close ups at impeccable timing.