The Hare Was Shot by the Hunter in the Bunker

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2010)

Abby Mann re-documents his stunning 1959 "Playhouse 90" teleplay for director Stanley Kramer, with Maximilian Schell towering over a magnificent ensemble cast. The focus isn't on Nazi atrocities (though they are here, in horrific images). But, this being a trial drama, "Judgment at Nuremberg" attempts to answer questions about humanity, beginning with HOW? "How could this have happened?" And, while only four mid-level Nazis receive justice, the film makes you wonder
Where does punishment for the Holocaust end? And, if you do not stop, don't you become the enemy?
That wanders, of course, into subjective interpretation; and, there are certainly others. This only makes an already strong piece of work more relevant. Criticisms about it being fictionalized and too long are curiously incongruent. Fewer people would sit through the real trials. The actors seem to employ demons (two, nakedly) to give electrifying, all-time greatest performances. The film is repellent and manipulative, but necessarily so. It exposes guilt, innocence and timeless evil.
********** Judgment at Nuremberg (12/14/61) Stanley Kramer ~ Maximilian Schell, Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland