Judgment at Nuremberg

Judgment at Nuremberg is a film with many excellent qualities. The courtroom sequences are stage brilliantly and Stanley Kramer knows how to get the most out of pretty much every angle in that crowded room. There are such great individual moments within there through the testimonies from the particularly strong performances of Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland and especially Montgomery Clift. The writing, the directing, and the acting all come together in these scenes. Outside of the courtroom the film is decidedly less interesting, and the end result of these scenes seems oddly simplistic. The film much of the time allows one to decide based on the arguments so to speak, that is until the ending which makes its position clear. Now most would have reached this position to begin with I would imagine, so its grand statement at the end seem unneeded, although it could have worked quite well but Kramer once again has to spell the message out in Neon letters.
4/5