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One of Stanley Kramer’s greatest socially conscious dramas, “Judgment at Nuremberg” features great writing by playwright and screenwriter Abby Mann, an amazing group of movie stars giving great performances all in the service in recreating society’s judgment of Germans that co-operated with the Nazi regime during World War II. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winner of two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor (Maximilian Schell), this searing drama has lost none of its power. Kramer’s naturalistic style highlights the powerful material that the actors are working with for this movie. “Judgment at Nuremberg” is notable for a number of great performances but it also features the last great performance of Montgomery Clift in a cameo role as a victim of the Nazi sterilization program. Clift reportedly had great difficulty remembering his lines during the shooting probably due to his well known drinking problem. He looks much more ragged and worn than his 46 years and fits in the role of Rudolph Petersen. ***

It’s 1948 and World War II is over for everyone but those butchered by the Nazis in Germany. The Cold War begins to take center stage and there’s mixed feelings among Americans and Europeans. They want to move on to fight communism but justice must be handed down. American judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) presides with two other judges during the trial of four Germans of making the methods that the Nazis used to sterilize and murder Jews, the elderly and immigrants “legal”. The Defense Attorney Hans Rolfe (Schell) has mixed feelings about representing men he once admired. Rolfe’s defense includes pointing out that other countries did very similar things as the Nazis as a means to excuse what occurred. Prosecuting Attorney’s task isn’t simple. He must prove that those on trial (Burt Lancaster, Werner Klemperer, Martin Brandt, Torben Meyer) knowingly made legal the horrific acts the Nazi party were using to “control” non-Aryan people. ***

Although it sounds as if the film might be full of preachy dialogue and static courtroom scenes, the searing drama and historical basis for this story makes it much more powerful than your average courtroom drama. With such a great cast, intelligent perceptive writing by Mann and taunt direction by Kramer “Judgment at Nuremberg” brings history to life in all its dark shades of gray. Kramer’s film indicates that despite the horrors that occurred, the world is never quite as black and white as we want it to be. A brave and worthwhile movie, “Judgment at Nuremburg” reaches beyond the scope of history and drama to create a powerful indictment of those that are “innocent” and “guilty”. The brilliance of Abby Mann’s script is indisputable what’s more his decision to focus on a little known trial late in the aftermath of the war allows for a fresh examination of a story at once familiar and new. ---

MGM lavished a great deal of attention on this DVD. We get three featurettes. The first focuses on writer Abby Mann and actor Maximilian Schell. Both provide marvelous stories about the making of the film. The two essentially interview each other for this featurette. The tribute to Stanley Kramer focuses on the powerful social dramas that Kramer made during this lifetime. Featuring Kramer’s wife actress Karen (Sharpe)Kramer discussing how they met, the focus of Kramer’s films and what drove him as an artist. Kramer made his films his pulpit to discuss social issues and injustices about the world that concerned him. “The Value of a Single Human Being” has writer Abby Mann reading excerpts from his script with stills from the movie. The photo gallery is broken up into sections on costume design, set design, the location work, Kramer at work on the movie and the premiere in Berlin and vary from 11 to 60 stills for each heading.