What makes it different from others?

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

"Only following orders"... we've all heard that was the reason (or excuse) proffered by many Nazis on trial. We could say the same thing about the actors in this "made for TV" "Dramatization" of the Nuremberg Trials. I've noticed that some reviewers have delved into the actual Nuremberg trials, and I won't go into that can of worms. Safe to say that this video covers all the well-known trivia and 'phrases' remembered from the NTs. It isn't horrible...after all, you've got some very capable actors in the lineup. It isn't for want of drama, as it is relying on the NT and all the drama surrounding one of the most well-known trials of the 20th century, along with one of the most 'interesting' of defendants ever put on trial, Hermann Goering. Having said that, it would be probably be hard work to screw this up... but it looks like they tried, lol. First off, there's a squeamish, cheesy sort-of romance going on between the lead prosecutor and his secretary that has nothing to do with the story. I can only assume this was done in keeping with a modern tradition of putting chick-flic crap into every movie, no matter the genre in an attempt to broaden the target audience to include ditzy females. Secondly, the pace and dialogue is hurried and brief. You won't find any 'great' dialogues or epic/memorable scenes here, even when they try. The performances are capable, the directing is functional, the costumes and sets are fairly accurate.... remember: "Made for television" ;) IF, ( I stress, IF) you have never known anything about the NTs and are getting your 'feet wet', I suppose this is an easy enough starting point. As far as performances, I'd say Brian Cox steals the show as HG. He is a great actor and effortlessly fulfills his duty here. Baldwin is.... well, Baldwin. He's in a lot of stuff bc he himself is such a 'pliable' personality, that he can basically be himself in just about any role, lol. But, he does alright. There are some others yo may recognize, like Plummer, who also is kinda himself in every role, but he does it (himself) so well, you don't mind, lol. Von Sydow is in there as well as Feore, both great actors doing great with what little they have been given to work with.I would like to 'warn' anyone, and I don't really consider this a 'spoiler', that there will be films of the concentration camps shown, and they are gruesome, to say the least. It is not what I would consider 'suitable for children', and I wouldn't show it to my child less than about 15-16 years of age, unless they are only a few years younger but very mature, or you censor that part by having them leave the room/fast- forward past it, etc. Like I said, I won't go into the actual NT and the 'pros and cons of war', but without a doubt, this was a very 'simplistic' representation of what happened during WWII and the Nuremberg Trials and chock full of good ol' 'USA is the greatest' point of view. Don't get me wrong, I'm a vet and very patriotic about the my country, the US, but the "Nazis are bad and the US are heroes" is a very one dimensional narrative of WWII. "The victors will always judge the vanquished"... it has been true for thousands of years, and it'll never be any other way. The original, phenomenal, 'Judgement at Nuremberg' (1961) is as in- depth and esoteric as this one is superficial... this one is simplistic, about the main trial for the Nazi leaders, and the 1961 film is complex, nuanced and about the judges' trial... a much more intense and dramatic film, one of the best. Overall, I'd say it's worth watching, just keep in mind that it was a modest budget', made for TV' video.

Writing in 2014 and having the benefit of reading all of the other reviews, as well as being a student of both the war, and the trials, I'm somewhat fascinated by how much others seem to miss about the actual trials, the war, and the film. First, considering the length of the the FIRST part of the Nuremburg trials (which went on long after this first portion, led mostly by General Telford Taylor who would go on to teach law at Columbia Law School, and whose magnum opus "Munich: The Price of Peace" is considered the standard bearer for history of that precursor to the war), condensing it into a 3 hour miniseries, the producers did a nice job, particularly in Brian Cox's portrayal of Herman Goerring.However, what is missed is that part of Goerring arrogance during his direct examination, had to do with his slow, and painful recovery from both his morphine addiction, and his gross obesity.By the end of the war, as mentioned by Goerring's wife in the film, the former Reichmarshall, had been stripped of his title and in fact, an SS squad had been sent to kill him.Goerring had become a bumbling, bloated drug addict, incapable of performing almost any function.And to Colonel Andrus credit, he made sure that Goerring got healthy before the trial.Yet, it was just that, and Goerring's return to the former WWI flying ace status (Goerring replaced the Red Baron as Germany's greatest combat pilot during that war) that helped lead to his confrontation with Jackson.As has been mentioned here, despite Alec Baldwin needing to "redeem" Jackson, in fact, there was really no redemption.The transcripts of the trial are available to all, and Jackson's examination of Goerring was an unmitigated disaster, prosecutorially.It was only Maxwell-Fyfe's brilliant cross that saved the day and it is a legal moment still studied by prosecutors to this day.The so called affair between Jackson and the Jill Hennesy character is also silly.As a final point, the unquestioned view of Albert Speer as remorseful is questionable at best.One gets the impression from his "Inside the Third Reich" that it is likely that Speer was simply looking out for himself, and, having served his sentence, left Spandau and became a successful raconteur.However, Speer was arguably the most important man in the Reich by the end of the war, and in fact, had made the Reich and the war effort even more efficient at the end, than the beginning. He was a long term member of the Nazi party (from 1931), and being in charge of everything in Germany, including the trains, which he claimed at the trial to not know were being used to transport death camp victims, his claim of not knowing rang very hollow.The "conflict" between Speer and Goerring was also overplayed. Speer looked at Goerring still as the corpulent drug addict, while he was the regal Nazi. Tall, good looking and oh so efficient.As for trying to kill Hitler, Speer himself said that he never actually meant to, and it was merely puffery.

An accurate review of nuremburg must consider the door to history inadvertently opened with the movie "valkyrie" (Tom Cruise). "Valkyrie" (2008) at long last tells the world there was a German resistance during world war two professionally organised with bureaucrats, military generals, soldiers and civilians who tried to over throw the Nazi political regime, install a new chancellor, obtain peace and close the concentration camps. However, these unknown absolute heroes received no help at all from the allies who helped the French resistance just next door. History writers have used an institutionalised agenda ever since to conceal an allied evil which cost many tens of millions of lives with everyone conditioned to believe a deception that the German people completely supported the Nazis and consequently deserved the 24 hour bombing genocide and "unconditional surrender" that was imposed on the Germans. The German enigma codes were broken by English scientists in 1943 so much of what the Germans were doing was known. During 1943 the Germans developed new jet fighters and jet bombers by companies including Arado, Heinkel and Messerschmitt. However, even if the Nazis were eliminated and the German resistance succeeded the allies wouldn't allow any democracy in the world to have jet fighters, jet bombers, high speed submarines, ballistic missiles and radio guided missiles without the USA having them first! This is where the institutionalised agenda is relevant. Consequently, the German resistance got no help at all from the allies although they always had crucial intelligence to eliminate Adolf Hitler. The 20 July 1944 coup is proof there were significant efforts by the Germans to obtain peace. Instead, the Germans got ultimatums of "unconditional surrender" and 24 hour saturation bombing in an agenda to avoid peace. The allies wanted to steal the world's greatest technology and scientists from the Germans and contain complete ownership through an "unconditional surrender." It was a premeditated allied agenda to allow the war to perpetuate and keep the Nazis in power to justify the 24 hour bombing but it took one year after d-day before allied armies advanced into Germany to steal the world's greatest technology and scientists at the barrel of a gun. However, tens of millions of people had died since the allies abandoned the German resistance for their own greed. The allies imposed "unconditional surrender" on the Germans as a pretext to complete ownership and control of German property and government and it was done without using the German resistance to over throw the Nazis. The allies wanted to steal the world's greatest technology and scientists from the Germans to achieve world technological supremacy. Consequently, everything else took second place to the evil allied agenda which killed millions of German people in the 24 hour bombing; the concentration camps stayed open; the war was prolonged and led to the "cold war" with weapons based on German industrial achievements, technology, and scientists taken from the Germans in world war two.The 1946 Nuremburg war crimes trials were a public relations deception and mass murder perpetrated by the allies as retrospective justice to the Nazis. It was a smoke screen to hide the evil and greedy allied agenda for world technological supremacy rather than help the German resistance overthrow the nazi political regime.Tens of millions of people died because the allies abandoned the German resistance to an agenda but they inflicted retribution against the German chiefs of staff anyway whom paid with their lives at Nuremburg war crimes or not although the allies had perpetrated genocide to achieve world technological supremacy.

The Nuremberg trials of nazi war criminals are certainly a subject worthy of dramatization. The issues involved are global in significance and consequence. The action may be limited, but the opportunity for drama exists in spades.So how come this movie is so dull and uninspired? How come the most interesting thing they could think of to have the protagonist do is cheat on his wife? How come, in a trial full of larger-than-life characters on the side of justice, this movie presents only Hermann Göring with any color or style? I mean, if Goring is your most compelling character, you're in trouble (even if he's played by the brilliant Brian Cox - this is a film with no shortage of talent involved - Christopher Plummer can certainly hold his own with Cox onscreen, but was given little to do here).I think this could have been an excellent small film if they'd focused on the relationship of the Jewish psychologist assigned to suicide watch for the prisoners, and his interaction with the war criminals. By making Baldwin the centre of attention, they turned the story into a lumbering beast with nothing of interest to add to that small scenario.Ultimately, this movie is worth a watch, if only to remind us of what happened not so long ago. However, I can't escape the feeling that it was made solely as a platform from which to show some footage of death camp victims - which, as gut-wrenching and deeply saddening as it is, is a poor reason to make a film. They bore us for a couple of hours, then hit us with something horrifying and shocking, and the effect of that footage is supposed to compensate us for the lack of drama in the rest of the story. It does not.In future, when filmmakers tackle the holocaust and war crimes trials, I hope they treat the subject with the respect it deserves and make damn sure their movie is interesting enough to warrant our attention for reasons beyond a guilty sense of obligation.4/10