Powerful Stuff About Postwar Germany And Human Nature

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 1999)

World War II has just ended. Nuremberg, like the rest of Germany, is to a great extent still rubble but people are already starting to try to forget the whole thing and frequent bars and restaurants again, along with members of the American occupying forces. Most seem to be relieved the war is over and to get on with life. The last of the war crime trials against lower-ranking Nazis are taking place. In this setting we meet several characters: Madame Bertholt (Marlene Dietrich), the aristocratic German lady who disliked Hitler but is now nevertheless suffering the consequences of the war, having lost all including her military husband; the American Col. Lawson (Richard Widmark), the prosecutor at the war crime trials who, in a moment of drunkeness, admits his discomfort in occupying a country with an older and grander history than his own; Hans Rolfe, defense attorney for the defendants, who just might feel an underlying guilt over the ruthlessness he'll have to show in the courtroom but which nevertheless is required by him to best serve his legal calling; and the great Spencer Tracy as the presiding American Judge Haywood. The judge has been given Madame Bertholt's grand house to live in for the trial, and a perfect example of how this film shows the wide range of emotions in most human beings is his obvious guilt of invading this fine lady's house (even though she was the enemy) and the instant attraction between them. The wide range of emotions are so well portrayed in this film, which probably accurately represent the spectrum of people in Germany at this time. Nothing is black and white, no one is a total villain, everyone is a complicated human being. The dialogue is always electrifying, and this isn't even taking into account the courtroom drama (which is about half the film's time); which is genuinely disturbing..though this is primarily through the acting: Judy Garland as a woman reliving her past nightmare of inprisonment for having associated with a Jew; and Montgomery Clift as a man who underwent forced medical sterilization for being a Communist (Clift's portrayal of this wreck of a man is one of the best most heartbreaking pieces of acting you'll ever see). There's also an incredible speech by defendant Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) at the end which just might be the greatest insight, perhaps, into why the Third Reich was so successful at sweeping Germany. This film absolutely rates a ten.