Judgment At Nuremberg (DVD 2004)

i like the balance which the director achieves in presenting the arguments from both sides but the flaws are many ,at times it is reduced to sentimentality on avery serious issue .
the fact they openly celebrate that as listening to your heart rather than logic makes the subject even more difficult to stomach.
schell as the defending german is easily the best but even he indulges in shouting and melodramain the court,richard widmark is as wooden as the furniture in the court and plays a one-dimensional american prosector who is so noble he can be canonized by vatican .
judy garland ,montgomery clift are the victims and they give affective but rather overacted portrayals of the german victims ,as usual the nazis are all wallowing cowards who are still non-repentant and denying the holocaust till the cliched burt lancaster opens his mouth as the prosecuted minister of justice for third reich and he is just playing the martyr and the villain in a childish and overdone act .
the script is good and holds you while the direction is quite good despite crackling flaws like spencer tracey who looks totally miscast against a towering marlene dietrich as a german aristocrat who steals this movie easily with the best character and terrific acting as the bereaving widow of a german general wrongfully hanged in the trials .
the movie really needed a more grey approach to the issue of war crimes as they were comitted on both sides but it ends up making germans look like villains of the worst order while the americans are the saviours like dreden and hiroshima never happenened.
the fact that there is a glimpse of truth where schell gives testimony blaming the rest of the world for the war as well and dietrich make this a good watch .
i
i do wish the dvd had some extras on the historical facts too but there is nothing other than the movie itself ,no feature or documentary on a controversial issue at all ,a great oppurtunity wasted but still good cinema technically if not morally .