# 182 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Judgment at Nuremberg is a courtroom drama about a military trial of four Nazi judges, which takes place three years after all the major Nazi leaders have been already tried. One of the defendants, Ernst Janning, is a very intelligent and likable man, and it's hard for the judge to understand how Janning could have supported Hitler's politics and passed sentences that resulted in genocide. The situation gets even more complicated by the beginning of the Cold war, and since the United States needs Germany's support, everybody understands that strict sentences may poison the atmosphere.

I started writing this review two days ago, and I wish I had a chance to finish it because January 27th was the Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the day of the Siege of Leningrad Lifiting during WWII, which is widely celebrated over here, so writing a review on that special day would be very significant. Unfortunately, the end of this week turned out very busy, but better late then never, so here's my review of Judgement at Nuremberg.

One of the reasons why I think this is a great movie is that it questions how the whole nation could have turned blind eyes to the Holocaust. But then it goes even further, and points out that all of this couldn't have happened without the support from other countries and political leaders. At the same time, just because the whole worlds is guilty for not trying to stand up against Hitler at the beginning of the Nazi regime, doesn't mean that a specific person shouldn't be held responsible for his or her own decisions.

We see what it takes to be a good judge, and how hard the decision-making process can be, how hard it is to pass a decision not influences by the politics, what other people think of the situation, or even your personal feelings. I liked the ending too, when the judge visits Janning in prison, but despite of all the things Janning says, the judge doesn't even try to make him feel better because he knows that the sentence was fair. Judgement at Nuremberg is a perfect courtroom drama, and it's hard for me to understand why it is so much lower on the list than 12 Angry Men.

Interesting fact: Marlon Brando wanted to play the role of Hans Rolfe, the German lawyer who defends the German judges. Brando, in a rare attempt to garner the part, actually approached Stanley Kramer about it. Although, Kramer and Abby Mann were very intrigued with the idea of having an actor of Brando's talent and stature in the role, both were so impressed with Maximilian Schell's portrayal of the same part in the original Playhouse 90 TV broadcast of "Judgment at Nurmemberg", that they had decided to stick with the relatively unknown Schell, who later won the Oscar for Best Actor for that role

Favorite quote: "Janning, to be sure, is a tragic figure. We believe he *loathed* the evil he did. But compassion for the present torture of his soul must not beget forgetfulness of the torture and death of millions by the government of which he was a part".

# 166 Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi is a biopic based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi. I'll have to be careful here and refrain from expressing my opinion about this historical character. The last thing I wanna do is start a political debate, so I'll focus on the movie as a piece of art. The film covers a significant period of his life from 1893 (when he was 24) to his death in 1948, with an opening statement that "there is no way to give each year its allotted weight".

We see Gandhi's evolution from a young lawyer in a classy business suit to one of the most popular ideological leaders, who wore self-woven clothes and looked like the poorest person in India. This evolution took roughly three hours of running time, and I wish the movie was a little more fast-paced, but I guess it had to meet the demands of the genre, and I can understand that it's hard to depict 55 years of somebody's life, especially when it's full of events that influenced the whole nation.

Ben Kingsley looks so much like Gandhi, and I think he was worthy of receiving the Award as the Best Actor in a Leading Role. However, even more outstanding (and not awarded by the Academy) was the make-up. They had the same actors playing throughout the whole film, so they didn't have one actor playing "young Gandhi", another actor playing "Gandhi", and another one for "old Gandhi". The make-up made the actors look the age of their characters, which raises the question why The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the Best Achievement Makeup award, and Gandhi didn't.

My favorite part of the movie is when Gandhi is talking to a man who killed a child because the Muslims killed his son. The road to salvation that he suggested really impressed me, I know it's pretty simple, but still, I choose it as my favorite quote for this movie. Overall, I can't say that I really enjoyed watching this film, or that it's the best biopic I've ever seen, nonetheless, it's a good one, and helped me learn stuff I had missed in history class.

Interesting fact: Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Bhanji) looked so much like Mahatma Gandhi, many natives thought him to be Gandhi's ghost. The actor's paternal family was from the Indian state of Gujarat, the same state Mahatma Gandhi was from.

Favorite quote: "I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one".

# 139 Ben-Hur (1959)

Ben-Hur is a story of the friendship between two boys, one being Jewish, and the other one Roman, who grow up, and become enemies due to the fact that one of them is a Jewish prince, whereas the other has become a commanding officer of the Roman legions in Jerusalem.

This movie kept me focused the whole three and a half hours inspite of being old and long, given that I'm not even a fan of historical epic films. The movie is well paced, at the beginning of the movie I kept thinking it was going to be boring, and that they wouldn't come up with enough events to fill the whole movie with, but I was wrong. There's just so much going on here, so many themes and ideas. No, it's not breathtaking, and it was not very emotional to me, but if I had to use one word to describe it, it would be "interesting". There is a romantic plotline, but, surprisingly, it doesn't ruin the film.

I think one of the things that make this film outstanding is the fact that it doesn't use computer generated graphics for action scenes, such as the chariot race, and still all of the action is of a very high standard. The naval battle was also well done. My favorite part was the scene with the galley slaves rowing in a galley.

Although the tagline of the movie is "A Tale of the Christ", we only see Jesus on the screen for about five minutes throughout the whole film, and his role is so small, that I wouldn't even call him a supporting character. Of course, we understand, that when Christ appears in the movie, it's very special, but the person who is really trying to deliver the message is the daughter of Ben-Hur's slave, Esther. This film is not about forgiveness, it is about mercy though.

Favorite quote: "One God, that I can understand, but one wife? That is not civilized. It is not generous!"

Interesting fact: This is the only one of the three movies who have won 11 Academy Awards (the others being Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)) to have won an Oscar for acting performances.