This 1961 blockbuster film--it made more than 5 times what it cost to make--with an amazing all-star cast is a recreation of the so-called "Judges' Trial," part of the wider war crimes trials at Nuremberg after World War II. It's another one of my obsessions of late. I think a guy who has a chance to teach social studies in high school had better be decently well-versed in the details of that war and its aftermath. I do find that pop culture still has a role in humanizing certain things from long ago, especially since we will soon lose everyone who fought or experienced that war. (And it's a great film! And naturally, most teachers are huge nerds, and those of us in the liberal arts rarely stop thinking of our subjects.)
Maximilian Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor in his role as Hans Rolfe, defense counsel for the four Nazi judges on trial. Despite engaging in some contemptible tactics during the trial, Schell manages to make Rolfe almost likable. [Schell was pretty; pretty people get away with everything.--ed.]
I'm no lawyer, but democracies thrive in the practice of criminal law via the presumption of innocence and countless technicalities that benefit defendants. In recent viewings, I have tried to imagine what I might argue as defense counsel, in order to obtain a different result. Justly, that might be the most difficult defense case ever taken on.
Rolfe attempts to argue the distance between being part of the regime, and the particular human rights atrocities carried out by others. He's in a certain way joined by Judge Ives from the 3-judge panel, who latches on to an irreconcilable tension between allegiance to one's own country, and the implications of international law.
I think it turned on precisely a secret decree by Hitler authorizing secret arrests and detentions without trial in concentration camps, followed up by specific written decrees signed by the individual defendants pursuant to Hitler's initial decree. Every elucidation of the horrors of the camps then becomes directly relevant evidence of participation in all the crimes. It's legally, morally, and logically devastating to the defense case. The prosecutor Col. Lawson, played by the great Richard Widmark, honestly is kind of irritating. If it were a jury trial, he may well have lost. He has several (understandable) emotional freak-outs in court, yelling at the bench and defense counsel. Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) admonishes him that although this is taking place in the American zone, and no one is overly fond of Nazis, he doesn't make the rulings in this case.
Perhaps it was designed this way. Only one of the defendants (played by Werner Klemperer) is overtly and immediately unlikable. Heaps of German charm, both from the land and its people, mixed with that peculiar American self-doubt. Add in deep concern about Soviet encroachment and Cold War fear. The case had better be iron-clad, because the Americans have every reason to manufacture a way to let them off the hook.
In any case, 6 stars out of 5. Every actor basically delivers the performance of their lives. They couldn't have improved this movie with Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier.
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