“Judgment at Nuremberg” depicts one of the Nuremberg trials in which the former Nazi figureheads were tried by the US established tribunals in the aftermath of World War II. The movie had the misfortune of going up against “West Side Story” at the Academy awards, and one only two, for best actor (Maximilian Schell) and the best adapted screenplay.
The story is focused on the trial of four German judges and prosecutors in the Nazi Germany, now accused of crimes against humanity due to their role in the atrocities committed in Germany under Hitler’s regime. Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy), one of the film’s main characters, struggles to understand how such well educated and well respected men could not only tolerate, but also enable the terrible crimes committed in the Nazi Germany. The movie deals with the issues of relativity of morality in troubled times and the individual responsibility of those involved. Judge Haywood tries to resist the diplomatic pressures of his own government looking for allies in the ongoing cold war with Russia, and ultimately sentences all four defendants to life in prison. The film ends with Haywood visiting one of the sentenced German judges, who tries to persuade him that he never wished for the atrocities committed against thousands of innocents, but Haywood rejects that claim stating that sentencing innocent people leads to that.
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