Judged to Be Great

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2006)

A superb film in every aspect is the 1961 version of Judgment at Nuremberg. If only the motion picture academy would have 2 categories for musicals and dramas, this brilliant film would have certainly won in the latter category.
An all-star cast is shown in the story of the trials that occurred following World War 11.
We have Spencer Tracy, the head of the tribunal, playing the part with tremendous foresight. Max Schell, in an Oscar winning performance, is the defense attorney for the miserable judges who allowed their bigotry and loyalty to the Third Reich to get in the way of everything that is decent.
Who can forget Burt Lancaster as one of the repenting judges? Richard Widmark plays the prosecuting attorney as if he were a holocaust victim. He was superb.
Phenomenal in Oscar nominated supporting roles are Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland, Christian victims of the Nazi regime. Their testimony during the trial is chilling and shows what hate caught up in a society gone insane could produce.
Marlene Dietrich, a real life refugee from Nazi Germany, is perfect as the wife of the executed Nazi army official. Knowing the wrongs that have occurred, she is nevertheless dismayed by the pictures of holocaust victims shown by the Widmark character at the trial.
Stanley Kramer did a masterful job in directing a film that should be shown to students of the Holocaust and to all.