The Nuremberg Trial. Review on Judgement at Nuremberg Movie

Written by: Abby MannDirected by: Stanley KramerGenre: Classic/ DramaRated: NRRunning time: 186 minsTheatrical release: 1961The cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Werner Klemperer, William Shatner, Kenneth Mackenna, Ray Teal.

I must have seen this outstanding cinematic work by Abby Mann at least two times, and each time I watched it I enjoyed it very much. Judgement at Nuremberg is a special landmark movie because it was released in 1961, and its historical focus is on the saddest moment in world history, the holocaust, and its nazi criminals. Its heartfelt and gripping footages of war, death camps, torture, and death is moving and visually horrible.

Lead actors Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Marlene Dietrich provide excellent and thought provoking brilliantly done performances that successfully drive home this movie’s main message of Germany’s shameful history of the Holocaust, and the tragic events that followed it.

In this movie, the year is 1948 World War 2. Three American Judges are sent to Germany to try 4 German judges for war crimes of torture, mutilation for experimental use, gassing by deception, rape, and the deaths of over 6 million Jewish men, women, and children at the order of Germany’s tyrannical ruler Adolph Hitler. The German judges are on trial because they handed down wrongful sentences that paved the way for the Jewish people to die under the Nuremberg laws and the laws of the Third Reich.

Lead actor Marlene Detriach brings grace to the screen in her well done portrayal of the wife of a Nazi solder that’s been executed for war crimes, she seemingly can’t cope with the loss of her spouse, and the crimes he has committed.

Spencer Tracy and Richard Widmark do an excellent job in their performances as a judge, and prosecutor whom ultimately draws this trial to a surprising climax. Burt Lancaster also provides an outstanding performance as a confessed war criminal and defrocked German judge who comes to grip with the crimes he’s committed against the Jewish people along with his role of handing down unjust sentences that sanctioned inhumane atrocities. Judy Garland is excellent in her dramatic portrayal as a witness who must testify, and retell her shameful past to help a defense attorney portrayed by Montgomery Clift get a conviction for this trial.

Final Thoughts

The graphic footages of war, and the macabre is most terrifying and heart touching. After watching this academy awarding classic and cinematic masterpiece you’ll be left with immense emotions. Judgement at Nuremberg is a must see motion picture. It’s a well-informed movie that reflects and depicts accurate accounts of the Holocaust and its saddest moments. The black and white cinematography is brilliantly done, and cast on the graphic details of death at Germany’s noted gas chambers, along with reenactments of disembodiment, and murder. Acting by the entire cast is wonderfully done. The contribution by this cast in the making of this movie adds a tremendous boost to the retelling of a historical event in world history.

Judgement at Nuremberg gets 5 stars it’s excellent.