Judging "Judgment at Nuremberg"

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2010)

Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg" is a courtroom drama based on the Nuremberg trials for war crimes which were held in the years following WWII. In particular, it was inspired by the Judges' Trial, which focused on a group of jurists.
As producer, Kramer saw to it that his film was populated with an enviable cast. The performances of Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift all resulted in Oscar nominations, while Maximilian Schell, reprising his role from an earlier television production, took home the Best Actor Oscar. Also starring were Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark. Given this lineup, it is unsurprising that the acting is likely the picture's strong suit.
However, that is not to say that the other elements of the film are unremarkable. After all, the picture did land eleven Oscar nominations, which suggests (accurately, in this case) that the film's production was a well-rounded one. While Kramer's direction gets somewhat repetitive over the course of three hours the cinematography and art direction are quite attractive throughout. All were awarded with Oscar nominations but, strangely, Ernest Gold's evocative score wasn't.
Besides Schell's victory, the only other Oscar win went to Abby Mann for his adapted screenplay. To my mind, it's pretty good but not entirely successful. My main complaint is that Mann tries to do too much. While I give him credit for tackling the thorny subject of the guilt of the German people at large I don't think that it was handled particularly well. Bringing this angle into the film only made it seem more like a glib condemnation of the entire German people, which I hope was not Mann's intention. For me, consideration of this bigger picture only hurt the main thrust of the narrative, which, while not exactly clear-cut, was more well-defined.
Ultimately, even though the script is the film's chief weakness, Kramer & company manage to hold the viewer's attention for the full three hours. While the film has several good points it also has the potential for coming across as self-righteous, so your appreciation of it may owe as much to personal factors as to filmmaking craft.