Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Werner Klemperer
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 178 minutes
Plot
After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a series of trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, by an international tribunal, headed by American legal and military officials, with the intent of bringing to justice those guilty of crimes against humanity. However, by that time most of the major figures of the Nazi regime were either dead or long missing, and in the resulting legal proceedings American judges often found themselves confronting the question of how much responsibility someone held who had "just followed orders." Judgment at Nuremberg is a dramatized version of the proceedings at one of these trials, in which Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) is overseeing the trials of four German judges -- most notably Dr. Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) and Emil Hahn (Werner Klemperer) -- accused of knowingly sentencing innocent men to death in collusion with the Nazis. Representing the defense is attorney Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell), while prosecuting the accused is U.S. Col. Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark). As the trial goes on, both the visiting Americans and their reluctant German hosts often find themselves facing the legacy of the war, and how both of their nations have been irrevocably changed by it. Judgment at Nuremberg also features notable supporting performances by Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Montgomery Clift. Originally written and produced as a play for television, the screen version of Judgment at Nuremberg was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, with Maximilian Schell and Abby Mann taking home Oscars for (respectively) Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Judgment at Nuremberg, which reenacts the third of 13 infamous 1948 war-crime trials, is most powerful for its subtle and shaded characterizations of both victim and victimizer. There are no easily identifiable evil enemies: the bad guys seem an awful lot like you or me, which is one of the film's central points about the rise of the Nazis. Riveting performances distinguish the movie, especially Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, and Burt Lancaster in the showiest parts (which they make the most of). Spencer Tracy anchors the proceedings with a reliably level-headed performance. The script, which presents complex moral and philosophical issues quite well, is not quite as cutting, bitter, or angst-ridden as the subject demands. The subject matter guarantees some intensely emotional moments; however, the script occasionally fails to use them to challenge viewers to look more closely at their own self-satisfaction. Instead, we get some rather windy speechifying. Visually, the film is somewhat static (as courtroom dramas often are), though the dramatic power of the historical subject often makes it easy to overlook this flaw. Nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Stanley Kramer, and acting nominations for Tracy, Garland, and Montgomery Clift, the film won for Abby Mann, who adapted the screenplay from the stage play, and Maximilian Schell, who plays the Nazi criminals' defense lawyer. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide
Philip Langner - Associate Producer, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Joe King - Costume Designer, Stanley Kramer - Director, Frederic Knudtson - Editor, Ernest Gold - Composer (Music Score), Art Dunham - Musical Direction/Supervision, Robert J. Schiffer - Makeup, Rudolph Sternad - Production Designer, Ernest Laszlo - Cinematographer, Clem Beauchamp - Production Manager, Stanley Kramer - Producer, George Milo - Set Designer, Abby Mann - Screenwriter
Judgment at Nuremberg centers around a military tribunal in which four judges are accused of crimes against humanity for enacting Nazi law. Judge Haywood (Tracy), the chief justice in the case, attempts to understand how defendant Ernst Janning (Lancaster) could have passed sentences resulting in genocide, and by extension how the German people could have turned blind eyes to the Holocaust. In so doing, he befriends the widow of a Nazi officer (Dietrich) and talks with a number of German people with different perspectives on the war.
The film examines the questions of individual complicity in crimes committed by the state. For example, defense attorney Hans Rolfe (Schell) raises such issues as the support of U.S. Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., for the practice of eugenics, and Winston Churchill's words of praise for Adolf Hitler. In the end, Janning makes a statement condemning himself and his fellow defendants for "going along" with the Third Reich, and all four are found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
The film is notable for showing actual historical footage filmed by American soldiers after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Shown in court by prosecuting attorney Col. Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark), the footage of huge piles of naked corpses laid out in rows and bulldozed into large pits was exceptionally gruesome for a mainstream film of its day.
The film ends with Haywood's having to choose between patriotism and justice. He rejects the call to let the Nazi judges off lightly to gain Germany's support in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.[2]
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Judgment at Nuremberg was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the courtroom drama genre.[4]
Adaptations
In 2001, a stage adaptation of the film was produced for Broadway, starring Schell (this time in the role played in the film by Burt Lancaster) and George Grizzard, with John Tillinger as director.[5]
^Bradley, Sean. "Judgment at Nuremberg". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/JudgmentAtNuremberg.html. Retrieved 2008-09-27. "He argues that the love of country led to an attitude of "my country right or wrong." Disobedience to the Fuehrer would have been choice between patriotism and treason for the judges. [...] Why did the educated stand aside? Because they loved their country."
