‘Nuremberg [The Schulberg/Restoration]’ Preserves Vital Footage

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Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – In the opening moments of Stuart Schulberg’s invaluable 1948 documentary, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,” shell-shocked men, women and children emerge from the wreckage of what appears to be a post-apocalyptic landscape. A street lamp juts out from the carnage, twisted out of all recognition, much like the human bodies later viewed in the footage.
 
The level of barbarism and monstrous inhumanity captured by Schulberg’s lens is simply beyond words. It’s impossible to dissect such vital images with a conventionally critical eye. “Nuremberg” is less a film than an enduring historical record. Moviegoers familiar with dramatizations such as Stanley Kramer’s excellent 1961 ensemble piece, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” will be amazed to see excerpts from the 25 hours of film permitted to be shot of the initial Nuremberg trials, from November 1945 to October 1946.

History buffs and Holocaust scholars will have the rare opportunity to view this monumental achievement on the big screen during its run at the Music Box Theatre. Schulberg’s daughter, Sandra, oversaw a 2009 restoration of the picture with Josh Waletzky, creating a fresh 35mm negative while reconstructing the original soundtrack, score and narration (recited by Liev Schreiber, who wisely resists all thesping opportunities). Though Sandra’s collaborators were unable to sync words elicited at the trial with the onscreen images, they never allowed their limitations to become a distraction. Joseph Zigman’s masterful editing is the crux of the film’s success, as it intercuts moments from the trial with footage used in the prosecution’s defense. Cinema played a key role in convicting the twenty-four Nazi leaders tried before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson served as the U.S. Chief Prosecutor, and expressed his wish to screen footage of Nazi atrocities in the courtroom. Schulberg and his brother Budd were among the filmmakers assigned to an OSS film team led by none other than John Ford. The resulting footage was compiled into two features, “The Nazi Plan” and “Nazi Concentration Camps,” each viewed at the trial and interspersed throughout “Nuremberg.”

Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson is featured in Stuart Schulberg’s 1948 documentary, Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today.
Photo credit: Schulberg Productions

What the OSS team captured is truly astounding. Not only did they assemble enough archival clips to illustrate the rise of Nazism in meticulous detail, but they also immortalized the horrors of concentration camps with imagery forever etched into the history books. Even if “Nuremberg” consisted solely of this footage, it would be enough to haunt future generations until the end of time, thus doing more to prevent the waging of an “aggressive war” than any number of ideological speeches. We see terrified victims writhing and wilting in a gas chamber. We see grotesquely deformed corpses hurled into a mass grave. Yet we also get a sense of the Nazi’s global destruction beyond the camps, such as their execution of 350 hostages in the caves of Italy, or their program to kill off “useless” (a.k.a. old or disabled) German citizens. There’s a chilling moment when Hitler publicly mocks President Roosevelt’s request for assurance that there will be no Nazi invasion of various countries. The seemingly endless list of lands deemed off-limits is met with hearty laughter from Hitler’s adoring crowd, which leads to perhaps the most powerful single edit in the picture. Schulberg jarringly cuts to a dizzying montage of war carnage, as dazed villagers suddenly find their surroundings engulfed in flames. And yet, throughout it all, Hitler insists that his country does not desire a war, and wishes only peace and tolerance. Of course, Hitler delivers these pathetic lies with his trademark snarl.

What I’ve routinely found most fascinating about the trials are the defendants themselves, and their reactions to the charges against them. “Nuremberg” closes in on the faces of these men, exposing the fear, humiliation, and in some cases, despair lying beneath their controlled expressions. Only field marshal Wilhelm Keitel appears to be harboring nothing more than fiery rage. Much of the film’s final half hour is devoted to the trial, as the convicted war criminals are finally granted the opportunity to defend themselves. A startling number of them denounce Hitler entirely, while counting themselves among the Germans betrayed by his broken promises. Perhaps the most riveting sequence in the film comes in the form of Justice Jackson’s closing statement, in which he lacerates the defendants for their abominable denial. Nearly every Nazi general makes the profoundly weak argument that their actions were made without the slightest understanding of their consequences. In their perfect world, the Holocaust would amount to little more than an elaborate hoax. Unluckily for them, a camera was there to capture it all.

Nuremberg [The Schulberg/Restoration] was released at the Music Box on May 6.
Photo credit: Schulberg Productions

It’s difficult to pinpoint the precise reason why “Nuremberg” was banned from American theaters for the past six decades. All theories seem to point toward governmental censorship, especially since an overtly critical film about Germany could’ve potentially stalled the European Recovery Program set into motion by the Marshall Plan in 1947. Yet it remains confounding why the film never acquired a theatrical release within the subsequent decades, especially after Kramer’s film included footage from “Nazi Concentration Camps” during its staged version of the trial. The Chicago premiere of Schulberg’s picture arrives soon after the assassination of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose death came just two days following the sixty-sixth anniversary of Hitler’s suicide. Both men embraced their iconic status as a beacon of hope and possessed an extraordinary ability to lead their flock in any direction they desired, even if it meant sailing over a cliff and into the abyss. They knew precisely how to inspire their followers to kill untold numbers of innocent civilians all in the name of god and country. Needless to say, Schulberg’s film couldn’t have been released at a more appropriate time.

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com