Excellent movie, based on actual events. Just a side note, the films shown at the trial were predominately from the Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany. The Allies never saw the death camps which were in Poland; they were liberated by the Soviets. Gassing with Zyklon B was done in these Polish camps, namely Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka. As the Soviets advanced thru Poland, these camps were abandoned and prisoners that were fit enough were marched several hundred miles to Bergen-Belson. The majority of the emancipated prisoners in the Allied films were of those that marched from Auschwitz...many died on the way. Those who couldn't make it were shot on the spot. The prisoners the Soviets found in the death camps were those too sick to make the journey. In Jan 1945 the SS blew up the gas chambers in the death camps, in an attempt to cover them up. It is because of this act that anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers hold on to the belief the gas chambers never existed.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Samuel Johnson, 1775
8 years ago
A powerful scene in the movie, was when the Tribunal showed footage from one of the concentration camps. The gassing of people, including women and children and the death by hanging of innocent children. When the allies arrived to liberate the camps, all they could humanly do, was bulldoze the bodies into mass graves. When the defendants saw the footage in court, they claimed they no idea that it went on. One of them, even stated that the hard part of job, was not the killing, but the disposal of the bodies. Burt Lancaster was unbelievable in the film. Spencer Tracy was the backbone of the whole prosecution of these animals. This is a film everyone should see. We were browsing the TV listing and stumbled on it by chance. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards!
Another great movie choice, Thomas. What an awesome cast of talented actors. The final scene, a confrontation between Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster, is very powerful, with Lancaster's character trying to justify his role as a judge in Nazi Germany. Alluding to the millions systematically murdered in the Holocaust, he tells Tracy that "I never thought it would come to that." Tracy's rejoinder is devastating. "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent." Additionally, Tracy's summation speech to the court, in which he explains the moral limits of government, and what it means to be a nation, especially during moments of crisis, has an important message for our own times, as many influential people today advocate the curtailment of domestic civil liberties and the inapplicability of international law, in the never-ending war against global "terrorism."
8 years ago
The film centers on a military tribunal led by Chief Trial Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), before which four German judges and prosecutors (as compared to 16 defendants in the actual Judges' Trial) stand accused of crimes against humanity for their involvement in atrocities committed under the Nazi regime. The film deals with non-combatant war crimes against a civilian population, the Holocaust, and examines the post-World War II geopolitical complexity of the actual Nuremberg Trials. An earlier version of the story was broadcast as a television episode of Playhouse 90.[3] Schell and Klemperer played the same roles in both productions.
Excellent movie, based on actual events. Just a side note, the films shown at the trial were predominately from the Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany. The Allies never saw the death camps which were in Poland; they were liberated by the Soviets. Gassing with Zyklon B was done in these Polish camps, namely Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka. As the Soviets advanced thru Poland, these camps were abandoned and prisoners that were fit enough were marched several hundred miles to Bergen-Belson. The majority of the emancipated prisoners in the Allied films were of those that marched from Auschwitz...many died on the way. Those who couldn't make it were shot on the spot. The prisoners the Soviets found in the death camps were those too sick to make the journey. In Jan 1945 the SS blew up the gas chambers in the death camps, in an attempt to cover them up. It is because of this act that anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers hold on to the belief the gas chambers never existed.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Samuel Johnson, 1775
A powerful scene in the movie, was when the Tribunal showed footage from one of the concentration camps. The gassing of people, including women and children and the death by hanging of innocent children. When the allies arrived to liberate the camps, all they could humanly do, was bulldoze the bodies into mass graves. When the defendants saw the footage in court, they claimed they no idea that it went on. One of them, even stated that the hard part of job, was not the killing, but the disposal of the bodies. Burt Lancaster was unbelievable in the film. Spencer Tracy was the backbone of the whole prosecution of these animals. This is a film everyone should see. We were browsing the TV listing and stumbled on it by chance. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards!
Another great movie choice, Thomas. What an awesome cast of talented actors. The final scene, a confrontation between Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster, is very powerful, with Lancaster's character trying to justify his role as a judge in Nazi Germany. Alluding to the millions systematically murdered in the Holocaust, he tells Tracy that "I never thought it would come to that." Tracy's rejoinder is devastating. "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent." Additionally, Tracy's summation speech to the court, in which he explains the moral limits of government, and what it means to be a nation, especially during moments of crisis, has an important message for our own times, as many influential people today advocate the curtailment of domestic civil liberties and the inapplicability of international law, in the never-ending war against global "terrorism."
The film centers on a military tribunal led by Chief Trial Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), before which four German judges and prosecutors (as compared to 16 defendants in the actual Judges' Trial) stand accused of crimes against humanity for their involvement in atrocities committed under the Nazi regime. The film deals with non-combatant war crimes against a civilian population, the Holocaust, and examines the post-World War II geopolitical complexity of the actual Nuremberg Trials. An earlier version of the story was broadcast as a television episode of Playhouse 90.[3] Schell and Klemperer played the same roles in both productions.
The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards. Maximilian Schell won the award for Best Actor, and Abby Mann won in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. The remaining nominations were for Best Picture, Stanley Kramer for Best Director, Spencer Tracy for Best Actor, Montgomery Clift for Best Supporting Actor, Judy Garland for Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, and Best Film Editing.[8] Stanley Kramer was given the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. This is one of the few times that a film had multiple entries in the same category (Tracy and Schell for Best Actor). Many of the big name actors who appeared in the film did so for a fraction of their usual salaries because they believed in the social importance of the project