Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)

Review:

Many of the greatest war movies never approach the battlefield. They look at the causes and consequences of war, but never engage in the brutal action. Some examples of this type of film would be Altman’s MASH or Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. These films look deep into the shadows of war but never let you see the monster itself. Consequently war becomes all the scarier.

Director Stanley Kramer’s 1961 film Judgement at Nuremberg is yet another example of such a film. With an all-star cast, including Spencer Tracey, Burt Lancaster, and Judy Garland, Judgement at Nuremberg explores the conflict between personal and national responsibility of the Nazi War crimes. The film chronicles a fictionalized Nuremberg trial in which four German judges are being tried for their adherence to Nazi law. Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracey) has been summoned from the United States to preside on a tribunal that will oversee the proceedings. Burt Lancaster gives one of his most solemn performances as Dr. Ernst Janning, one of the German judges on trial. In his stoic silence you can sense this man has been crippled by his shame. Actor Maximillian Schell, in an Oscar winning performance, plays Hans Rolfe, the young lawyer who defends the German judges with the troubled conviction that, “A judge does not make the laws, he carries out the laws of his country.”

Judgment at Nuremberg does not tap dance over moral ambiguities. Director Stanley Kramer and writer Abby Mann are not confronting easy issues and they know it. What truly makes this film complex is the exploration of the German people’s own responsibility in the war crimes. Can four men really be held accountable for war crimes when the German populace turned a blind eye? And how much guilt must we all assume if these men are not found guilty? These sorts of issues could never be explored on a battlefield of World War II. Only in a courtroom or in the streets of broken cities can the guilt and responsibility of war be most fully understood.

The film is also beautifully shot with great use of deep focus. Every frame seems reminiscent of detailed trial sketches. Judgement at Nuremberg can be called a courtroom drama but it travels so deep into the heart of a tragic war and a troubled nation that I can do nothing but think of it as a war film. Eloquent, troubling, and at times deeply disturbing, Judgement at Nuremberg will be remembered as a hallmark of war and courtroom dramas.

Rating:

On a scale of one to Casablanca, this film is a "Doctor Zhivago"

Rationalization:

The scope of this film is epic. The stark, unequivocal judgement about war and war criminals gives a lasting impression to the viewer. In modern films, the fog of war tends to invade all sinews and crevices of the moral world. Nothing is certain in the indifferent universe of the contemporary war film. But "Judgement at Nuremberg" restores a sense of restitution, distinctly drawing the line between right and wrong and having the audacity to say who is in the wrong.