Judgement at Nuremberg

Release Year: 1961

Director: Stanley Kramer

Review: An emotionally charged fictitious court room drama about the Nuremberg trials.  Specifically this film focuses on the judge trials, in which Nazi judges are put on the stand in front of an American tribunal facing charges of crimes against humanity for their involvement in the Holocaust.  What stands out in this film are the strong acting performances by Spencer Tracy as the impartial American judge, Richard Widmark as the colonel prosecuting the judges and Maximilian Schell as the Nazi judge's defense lawyer.  Although each were phenomenal in their roles, Schell (who won the Academy award for his role), really stands out, giving each one of his speeches an empowered charge and making us feel sympathetic to the condemned judge's cause.  This is key to the entire film.  It tries to paint a picture that is neutral to the German people.  It shows them as people, rather than all evil Nazis. 

Ultimately the atrocities that occurred during the holocaust were too great however, and someone needs to take responsibility.  While there are plenty of impassioned speeches, the trial doesn't offer the same tension as something like '12 Angry Men', which I think is important when the entire movie takes place in the court room.  It's very strong emotionally, but doesn't quite knock it out of the park.  It is certainly more of a court room drama than a suspense or a thriller, which doesn't, however, lessen the impact of its message. The way in which anger and prejudices over the war are handled are great, and this is certainly an important World War II movie and a classic court room drama.
Rating: 4/5