Gripping, layered, beautiful, eternally pertinent

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2010)

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
A widescreen black and white blockbuster from the cold war years, with so many stars at their dramatic best, it's a thrill as much as a horror to watch. A thrill because Stanley Kramer has directed this cast (Clift, Garland, Widmark, Tracy, Lancaster, Dietrich) with such finesse and high drama. Horror because it makes so clear the atrocities of World War II in Europe.
There is documentary footage at the core of the film--views of the terrifying destruction of the city as seen just after the war, and actual concentration camp footage that will curdle your blood. And also at the core of the script, and the overall feel of the film, is a documentary truth. The trials really did occur in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, in 1948 and 1949. The Americans ran the judicial aspects because it was in the American sector of occupied Germany (Spencer Tracy is the presiding judge, brought in from Maine for the eight month ordeal).
In the background is the contemporary and explosive crisis of post-war Berlin itself to the north. Berlin, the largest city, was in the Soviet sector, but the city itself was divided into four parts among the allies. If you don't quite follow the map and strings toward the end, it showed the famous Berlin Airlift. Because the Soviets closed off the roads in an aggressive attempt to claim all of Berlin as their own, the other three allies started flying everyday goods (from coal to food) to the city in an ongoing and expensive determination to not let the Soviets get away with it. Eventually access roads were reopened through East Germany, and Berlin remained accessible. The final evidence of this Soviet toughness was the Berlin Wall, not built until 1961--the year of this movie, and probably not a coincidence.
All of this makes this three hour movie essential viewing--historically critical, visually terrific, amazing acting. But what gives the thing larger appeal over the decades is a bigger and trickier theme. How much is a criminal government and evil military the responsibility of its citizens, both the ordinary folks and the ones higher up in power but no directly responsible for the worst crimes? The four men on trial here are jurists from the Nazi years. They claim they had to go along with the regime or lose their jobs, and maybe worse. Some claimed they tried, from the bench, to soften the Nazi unfair and inhumane laws as best they could--better than if they resigned in protest and moved to America. But prosecutors argued that everyone has to maintain a legal and moral truth, that sending people to their death or to sterilization is a crime, no matter what the pressure from above.
Watch to see how this man from Maine decides what kind of morality is truly just in the long run, in the big picture. The movie might look long on the poster, or on the package, but it will be gripping all through. It's a rare one.