History Film / JudgmentAtNuremberg

The movie presents a fictionalized version of the "Judges' Trial" at of the Franco-Anglo-American-Soviet International Military Tribunal (IMT) trials that took place at Nuremberg in 1947. In this trial the IMT tried the fourteen defendants with:

* Crimes against humanity on the same grounds, including slave labour charges.
* Membership of a Criminal Organization, whether the NSDA Party or SS.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: brought up in the film is the (genuine) fact that relations between Germans and Africans, and Germans and Jews, were criminalised as the act of ''Miscegenation'' in the 1935 ''Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor'' (Nuremberg Laws). The term, and laws, were derived from contemporary US State Laws which were still in effect when Film/JudgementatNuremberg was released.

* NotSoDifferent: A standard argument employed by German nationalists and sympathisers throughout the Trials process. This is part of Rolfe's argument when trying to defend his clients on the charges of their authorizing eugenic sterilization, asking one of the accused if he can identify a judicial opinion upholding a law allowing this before he reveals it was handed down by the ''US Supreme Court'' (this was TruthInTelevision, unfortunately).
** There is a point about the "My Country, Right or Wrong" doctrine which is proclaimed by nationalists, German and American.

In the fictional version presented in the film a panel of three U.S. judges, led by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), must decide the fate of three German judges - among them Ernst Janning (Lancaster) - who are merely accused of "collaborating with the Nazis". Robert G. Moeller has recently (2013) argued that the details of the trials process were altered to draw the greatest possible attention to the racially-divided, oppressive 'Jim Crow' policies of the USA itself at the time of its release (1961) by comparing and contrasting Nazi-German and American society and their values.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: brought up in the film is the (genuine) fact that relations between Germans and Africans, and Germans and Jews, were criminalised as the act of ''Miscegenation'' in the 1935 ''Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor'' (Nuremberg Laws). The term, and laws, were derived from contemporary US State Laws which were still in effect when Film/JudgementAtNuremberg was released.

In the fictional version presented in the film a panel of three U.S. judges, led by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), must decide the fate of three German judges - among them Ernst Janning (Lancaster) - who are merely accused of "collaborating with the Nazis". Robert G. Moeller has recently (2013) argued that the film was created to draw attention to the racially-divided, oppressive 'Jim Crow' policies of the USA itself at the time of its release (1961).

* MalignedMixedMarriage: relations between Germans and Africans, and Germans and Jews, were criminalised as the act of ''Miscegenation'' by the 1935 ''Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor'' (Nuremberg Laws). The term, and laws, were derived from contemporary US State Laws which were still in effect when the film was released.

In the fictional version presented in the film a panel of three U.S. judges, led by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), must decide the fate of three German judges - among them Ernst Janning (Lancaster) - who are merely accused of "collaborating with the Nazis".

''Judgment at Nuremberg'' is a 1961 CourtroomDrama that's BasedOnATrueStory, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer, and with an AllStarCast featuring Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/BurtLancaster, Richard Widmark, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, and Creator/JudyGarland.

The movie focuses on the Nuremberg trials that took place after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, specifically on when a panel of three U.S. judges, led by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), must decide the fate of three German judges - among them Ernst Janning (Lancaster) - who are accused of collaborating with the Nazis.

* NotSoDifferent: This is part of Rolfe's argument when trying to defend his clients on the charges of their authorizing eugenic sterilization, asking one of the accused if he can identify a judicial opinion upholding a law allowing this before he reveals it was handed down by the ''US Supreme Court'' (this was TruthInTelevision, unfortunately).
** There is a point about the "My Country, Right or Wrong" philosophy which is believed by staunch Patriots, both German and American.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, including one for judges, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional. Ernst Janning is a composite of three different judges who were tried. Also, the real Judges' Trial took place in 1947, but the film moves it to 1948 so that it can happen against the backdrop of [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar the communist coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The movie's parting words -- "The Nuremberg trials held in the American Zone ended July 14, 1949. There were 99 defendants sentenced to prison terms. Not one is still serving his sentence." -- meant something to the audiences of 1961. A modern audience has to put themselves in that time frame or else their reaction will be, "Duh, they're all dead by now."

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, including one for judges, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional. Ernst Janning is a composite of three different judges who were tried. Also, the real trial took place in 1947, but the film moves it to 1948 so that it can happen against the backdrop of [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar the communist coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade]].

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, including one for judges, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional. Ernst Janning is a composite of three different judges who were tried. Also, the real trial took place in 1947, but the film moves it to 1948 so that it can happen against the backdrop of the communist coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, including one for judges, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional. Ernst Janning is a composite of three different judges who were tried.

* UsefulNotes/AcademyAward: Schell won the Best Actor Oscar, and the script also won. The film was nominated for 11 awards total.

'''''Judgment at Nuremberg''''' is a 1961 CourtroomDrama that's BasedOnATrueStory, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer, and with an AllStarCast featuring Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/BurtLancaster, Richard Widmark, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, and Creator/JudyGarland.

* AcademyAward: Schell won the Best Actor Oscar, and the script also won. The film was nominated for 11 awards total.

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Leads to a NotSoDifferent argument, and Janning's HeelRealization.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, including one for judges, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional.

''Judgment At Nuremberg'' is a 1961 CourtroomDrama that's BasedOnATrueStory, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer, and with an AllStarCast featuring Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/BurtLancaster, Richard Widmark, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, and Creator/JudyGarland.

* NotSoDifferent: This is part of Rolfe's argument when trying to defend his clients on the charges of their authorizing eugenic sterilization, asking one of the accused if he can identify a judicial opinion upholding a law allowing this before he reveals it was handed down by the ''US Supreme Court'' (TruthInTelevision).

* NotSoDifferent: This is part of Rolfe's argument when trying to plead his case specifically on the charge relating to eugenic sterilization, asking one of the accused if he can identify a judicial opinion upholding a law allowing this before he reveals it was handed down by the ''US Supreme Court'' in the case of ''Buck vs. Bell'' (TruthInTelevision).

* NotSoDifferent: This is part of Rolfe's argument when trying to plead Janning's case, that some of his decisions (especially involving Judy Garland's character, who allegedly had sexual relations with a Jewish man, and Montgomery Clift's character, whose mother was thrown into a concentration camp for being feeble-minded) were no different than prominent U.S. judges such as Oliver Wendell Holmes.

* StarMakingRole: For Maximilian Schell, who'd only done a few German films and a bit part in ''The Young Lions'' previously.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Well, there ''were'' war crimes trials at Nuremberg, but every character and all the stories in this film are fictional.

* DoingItForTheArt: Most of the actors involved did the movie for a fraction of their salary because they believed in the importance of the subject matter.
* EnforcedMethodActing: Clift had a hard time remembering his lines, so Kramer allowed him to ad lib, which ends up adding to the frailty of the character.
* FakeNationality: Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift play Germans.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Creator/WilliamShatner is Judge Haywood's aide.
** [[Series/HogansHeroes Colonel Klink]] is one of the German judges on trial.

* PlayingAgainstType: Marlene Dietrich, who in real life was passionately anti-Nazi, playing a character who claims the Germans didn't know the full extent of what they'd done. Dietrich reportedly found scenes where she espoused that viewpoint hard to film.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/MarlonBrando was very interested in the part of Rolfe, and Kramer was interested in using him, but when he saw Schell's performance in the original TV version, Kramer and writer Abby Mann decided on using Schell instead.
** Creator/LaurenceOlivier was considered for Ernst Janning.

This film contains examples of:

* HeyItsThatGuy: Creator/WilliamShatner is Judge Haywood's aide.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/MarlonBrando was very interested in the part of Rolfe, and Kramer was interested in using him, but when he saw Schell's performance in the original TV version, Kramer and writer Abby Mann decided on using Schell instead.
** Creator/LaurenceOlivier was considered for Ernst Janning.

* TranslationConvention: All of the German characters speak German at the beginning of the trial, with translation provided (and the judges and attorneys wearing headsets), until Kramer cuts to a close-up of Rolfe speaking. As he pulls back the camera, Rolfe starts speaking English, and from then on, so do the other German characters.

* FakeGerman: Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift play Germans.