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Reviews
Nuremberg (2000)
Remember, it's a movie.
I think I'm in good company on this web page. Most subscribers are serious and articulate. Years of intently watching history-based films, however, have led me to a sense of respectful appreciation of the problems faced by the writers, directors, and cinematographers (but mostly the directors) involved in making such films. I think Alec Baldwin is a responsible, mature, serious-minded film maker; he saw, in this vehicle, an opportunity to dramatize the great question of our time, one that was well expressed by Albert Speer in his final comment: history has catalogued a steady progression in man's ability to destroy humanity by military-technical means. Where will the next step take us? Those who made this miniseries had to shape a vast body of material into a dramatic whole. How to present the dramatic confrontation between four more-or-less allied powers and more than twenty defendants? throughout a war that involved millions of combatants and tens of millions of victims? and extended over six years? It's not an easy job! The solution was, first, to highlight the confrontation between Robert Jackson, the prosecutor, and Herman Goehring, a clever, articulate, intelligent man who was the highest-ranking defendant, and who more than held his own in the courtroom give-and-take. The second solution was to feature the psychologist in his series of interviews of the defendants. The Greeks had a word, "phronesis," which meant something like our term "self-awareness," and involved the individual's recognition of his own wrongdoing. For the most part, the psychologist had limited success in getting the defendants to come to terms with their own criminal acts.
Limited as this two-fold solution may have been, the plan made sense to me. It's only a movie, after all. Those who wished for more out of the series can always go into the historical record. I myself have always had questions about the Hess and Donitz verdicts.
As for the "love interest," (that durable old Hollywood term!), I can always be forgiving of any movie that features Jill Hennessy, who is destined to succeed Myrna Loy as the perfect movie wife.
Eleni (1985)
...sorting out the mixture of historical background and intrinsic (dramatic) criticism
I think this movie has been underrated, for some disappointing reasons. Very few people criticize Kate Nelligan's fine performance; but they overlook the performances of Linda Hunt and the actor who played the local Communist leader who was ultimately spared by Nicholas Gage (I don't know his name, but I thought the casting was quite deft). For the most part, though, it was John Malkovich's performance that has been so grossly misunderstood. People hadn't seen enough of his work in 1985 when the movie came out. But now, after "Places in the Heart," "The Killing Fields," and numerous other films, we should be able to appreciate what he can do with a part.
Another distressing aspect of the critical comments is the fact that the political left prefers to focus on political background as the major point in their evaluation. To toss out any political reference to the actual situation in Greece in the late 1940's is nothing more than turning the very valid allegations of Communist mischief in that time into an argument for their side--something that the radical left has always been able to do quite adroitly for some time.
In the early '80's many of those kidnapped children had grown up and returned to Greece--as agents provocateurs. They were so successful that their efforts had a potent effect on Greek politics for years. It is a fact that in that time the Soviets shot down a Korean airliner that had drifted off course over the Sea of Japan. Everyone aboard was killed. And the Premier of Greece, with no evidence to support his conclusion whatsoever, said publicly that the plane was probably on a spy mission for the CIA. He, of course, was playing to the powerful leftist political sentiment in his own country at the time. A page of history is truly worth a volume of logic sometimes.