Wednesday, May 19, 2010

#116 Judgement at Nuremberg: The hare was shot by the hunter in the field

1961. dir. Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich.

Seen it before? Parts of it... for school... doesn't really count

This DVD has been sitting on the entertainment unit for about a week and a half. Staring at us with its unblinking eye. Taunting us. Daring us to watch it. "I'm 3 hours long! In black and white! I'm about the Holocaust!" So finally we watched it, and I have to say, we were riveted the whole time. Did not feel 3 hours long.

Spencer Tracy plays a judge; he's presiding over a trial of some former Nazi judges - Burt Lancaster, Colonel Klink, and uhh, two other guys. Richard Widmark plays the prosecuting attorney, and Maximilian Schell (who won Best Actor) plays the defense attorney. Why don't they make courtroom dramas anymore? Aside from various bullshit John Grisham movies, I think the last notable one was A Few Good Men, and that was almost 20 years ago. I don't know why this genre has fallen by the wayside. Anyway this is a great movie. Don't let the length and the Nazi atrocities throw you.

Position on the list: 182
Two people I didn't expect to see in this movie: Judy Garland, who looks old and tired here, and pre-Star Trek William Shatner.

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