Final Judgement on The Reich

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2006)

The big shots have already been hanged or have committed suicide when Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) a political hanger-on who just lost an election back home is sent as a political reward for party loyalty to occupied Germany to help mop up some of the remaining cogs in the Nazi system, more particularly, Dr. Ernst Janning, a former German judge now defendant in the War Crimes Tribunals for Crimes Against humanity. There is considerable doubt about Janning's guilt; many of Janning's decisions as a judge were no different than those made by similar authorities in the US.
Judge Haywood approaches Janning with a degree of fascination. Janning was no avid Nazi but a man of intellect and distinction.
What is the responsibility of a man of integrity in a world gone mad?
In occupied Germany, the Germans still bristle with hatred and resentment to their American conquerors, but the hatred is not quite so white hot as once was. The new Germany or at least West Germany would like to join the Western powers. Certainly a political figure like Judge Haywood is not immune to the pull to render a decision motivated by a spirit of reconciliation but one which integrity cannot sustain.
The movie is a classic for having presented this inner conflict through multiple levels of ironies and without preaching.