It's most powerful for its subtle and shaded characterizations of both victim and victimizer.

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2010)

Many of the big name actors who appeared in the film did so for a fraction of their usual salaries because they believed in the social importance of the project. The film is a fictionalized version of the 1948 trial of the Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity.
It's fashionable these days to decry director Stanley Kramer as a heavy-handed Hollywood liberal foisting his beliefs into his films, but he scored heavily with this courtroom drama about those men who enshrined Nazi tyranny as law. As a producer he gathered a brilliant, starry cast, while screenwriter Abby Mann provided an account of proceedings notable for its clarity. Yes, it's long, but this was an important historical event which the filmmakers have done justice. In doing so they have elicited some fine performances from big-name actors.