Judgment at Nuremberg

15 yrs 186 minutes • 1961 • 8.3

This star filled legal drama was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won two. The year is 1947 and four German judges are on trial for sentencing people to sterilizations and concentration camps during the reign of Hitler. The Cold War has just begun, and American prosecutor Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark) has a difficult challenge before him. The United States needs allies in the struggle against the Soviet Union and don’t want to anger Germany if it can be avoided. They would rather just be lenient and give out a lesser sentence. Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) has a difficult decision to make. “A masterpiece! Every image is important. Every line is necessary,” Göteborgs-Posten wrote at the time. Judgment at Nuremberg has been named one of the top ten American trial films by the American Film Institute.