Hollywood's best in an important film

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2008)

It is so easy to dismiss this as a story of other people in another time in another land. Unfortunately, what was done then, is being done by the leaders of our country in the name of protection from terrorists, and we, the people, sit silently by and let it happen just as the German people did seven decades ago.
We need to watch films like this over and over to remind us of what is important and what we, as civilized humans, can be reduced to out of fear.
This is another great film by the fantastic Abby Mann, who died last month. He won an Oscar for his screenplay, and it was well deserved.
Maximilian Schell was simply fantastic, as was Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, and Judy Garland. Director Stanley Kramer brought out the best in these actors, and others like Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, William Shatner, and Werner Klemperer.
Don't look upon it as three hours of cinema, but as a class in humanity as only Abby Mann could write.