Load of rubbish!!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

From 1998 to the present the TNT network has made a series of well-acted films worthy of awards and praise from viewer and critic alike. Not many TV movies can make this claim. Nuremburg is one of these films.When someone says: "Made-for-TV" movie one would expect characters that are miscast at worst misplaced and numerous mistakes such as modern cars deep in the background, a cheaply made background. But Nuremburg shatters this common stereotype. The characters are 3 dimensional and worth remembering. Alec Baldwin's performance is a commanding and selfless figure...very reassuring almost to sickening levels. Christopher Plummer and Jill Hennessey are very inoffensive supporting cast. They aren't as motionless as the scenery. The most riveting performance aside from Baldwin's is Brain Cox's portrayal of Reichmarshall Hermann Goering is spot-on and very intellectual.The films also gets high marks not only for its moral message about justice and democracy. It gets high marks for one particular scene of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps shown in very explicit and very painful detail. You would actually feel the shock and numbness of the audience. The oral testimony of the survivors also cannot be forgotten as it too explained the Nazi oppression in details just as painful. However, the Nazi officers standing trial remain either unmoved or motionless seeing their crimes from the opposite side of the law. Unfortunately, the accused only show a sliver of their humanity in the face of their ultimate fate: prison time or an execution.Now for the things I felt were lacking in this film, I didn't find that many. I don't hate this film but it's not on the level of the 1962 "Trial At Nuremberg". It should be a full-length silver screen modern adaptation. I didn't like the scenery that was obviously a CGI construct i.e. "the place of justice". There is a lot of emotions in this film like in the big-budget blockbuster. However, it's sanitized, too neat, and *ahem* not controversial enough. I prefer my docudramas with a little controversy albeit a safe dose. In conclusion, this is a wonderful film that is a little too clean and safe given this touchy subject. Nuremberg should be as intriguing as Conspiracy and moving as Schiendler's List. But it's one of the very few movies of 2000's that is my DVD pick and we can't have everything.

What to do with defeated enemies has been a question all victorious Societies have had to face. The Aztec made the humbled enemy play basketball before executing them. Romans held a big parade in Rome and later Constantanople and ritually strangled the conquered. Occasionally, the vanquished enemy was pardoned and maintained at State expense. In the middle ages, captured Knights were offered for ransom.After World War II, the US wanted to have a trial. "Uncle Joe" Stalin more practically suggested shooting those there was no further use for and keeping the few with some promise. However Stalin bowed to his allies wishes and the Neuremberg Trials began with the Russian Judges' toast 'To Law.' Alec Baldwin rendered a bravura performance as Justice Jackson the US chief prosecutor at Neurember capturing the arrogance, self-righteousness and political intrigue as well as the hubris when he cannot break REichsmarshall Hermann Goering on cross-examination. "All governments fundamentally operate the same," prisoner Goering tells the stunned Jackson.The movie stays from the actual event in giving Jackson the upper hand on a second round of cross-examination and in hanging on to the end. The real life Jackson who some bouts of melancholia during the ups and downs of the trial and who had lost the honor of appointment as US Chief Justice resigned as chief prosecutor long before the verdicts were rendered and returned to Washington.The people of the Neurenberg court were concerned with how history would see them. Will to a future generation this be seen as an attempt to impose law and order on statecraft or will it seem a bizarre form of public entertainment like the basketball game the Aztecs staged?

I have read a few books on the Nuremberg trials, as well as books on The Third Reich in general. Though the portrayals of the defendants were fairly accurate, they were not given the appropriate amount of air-time.I mean, without the defendants, there wouldn't have been a trial. Here's the top 10 things that should have been added (and especially subtracted from the movie.) 10) Should have emphasized the alliances between the defendants. Speer wasn't the only one to stand up to Goering. Von Schirach, Funk, and Fritzsche were all against Goering.9) Give Defendent #2 Rudolf Hess more that four words.8) Clarifiy why Hess goes crazy at the end.7) Make sure the audience knows that Speer's penitence could be him saving his hide.6) Emphasize that Franks conversion was due to him finding God.5) Talk about the defendants personal lives, try to explain why they would commit these atrocities.4) Tell what happened to the defendants who were acquitted or had their sentences carried out at Spandau.3) They should of had the story include Von Schirach and Von Neurath, the youngest and the oldest defendants, so they would have more of a age perspective to the story.2)All of the Defendants positions should have been named at least once.1) The Jackson/Secretary affair probably took at'least a half an hour out of the mini-series, Which could have been dedicated to, I don't know, making sure the audience at least knows the defendant's's names. Besides, I don't now one person who saw that movie who actually liked the couple.

Let's face it, TNT doesn't usually do that great of a job with their original movies. If you think about it, there aren't too many good made for TV movies. Nuremberg is a good made for TV original. The cast is really good, and the cast members look very much like the people they are portraying. I saw a picture that was taken during the Nuremberg trials that looked as though it could have been a shot from the movie. That's how good of a job they did with this movie.Like any other made for TV movies, there are some weak moments, but this movie has plenty of strong moments that make up for the weak ones. One of the scenes that will evoke some emotion in you is a scene where an old film is shown, showing footage taken from the death camps.The length of this movie does get kind of long, but it isn't boring or anything like that. It just requires a comfortable seat. Try to see this on TNT whenever you get a chance, it's worth it.