Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

This harrowing depiction of the Nazi war crimes trials, set in 1948, was directed by Stanley Kramer. The Abby Mann script centers on charges leveled against four German judges for allegedly allowing their courts to become complicit in Nazi atrocities.

Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy), an American judge, is perplexed as to how these once-respected colleagues allowed themselves to be used. He receives little or no assistance from ordinary Germans, who are attempting to distance themselves from Germany's Nazi past.

When one of the judges, Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster), deviates from the others and confesses, it becomes evident that these judges have prioritized political commitments over their own instincts of good and wrong, whatever their original intentions may have been.

Trivia: Won two Oscars. Marlene Dietrich, who personally experienced the Nazi regime, was allowed to write many of her own lines.

Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich