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NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY
Prosecution’s Exhibit A-plus
by Ann Hornaday More than 60 years after it was made,
“Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” arrives in American theaters as something of a mi- nor miracle. In 1945, the U.S. prosecutors at the Inter-
national Military Tribunal made two revo- lutionary decisions: They commissioned Stuart Schulberg, a filmmaker with the OSS Field Photographic Branch, to create docu- mentaries about Nazi history and atrocities that would be used as evidence in the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg. And they announced that they wanted the trial itself to be filmed as a document of a new form of transitional justice. The resulting work was shown in Ger-
many in 1948 and 1949 as part of the greater de-Nazification program. But it was with- held from American audiences (for reasons that have never been clear) until now. “Nuremberg,” a meticulous restoration by Schulberg’s daughter Sandra and Josh Waletzky, faithfully preserves the original 1948 documentary, adding new subtitles and a narration by Liev Schreiber.
NARA/COPYRIGHT SCHULBERG PRODUCTIONS
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson commissioned the making of evidentiary films that would help convict Nazis at Nuremberg and chronicle their crimes for posterity.
The intervening decades make the film’s
messages all the more potent — and not only in its depiction of how economic inse- curity, intolerance and demagoguery can be used to manipulate the most depraved forces of a civilized society. “Nuremberg” also stands as a fascinating record of a nas- cent international court system, the wages of aggressive war and a country’s tentative steps toward coming to grips with its his- tory.
Schulberg’s father made “Nuremberg” for
the U.S. War Department and the U.S. mili- tary government in Berlin, using footage he and his screenwriter brother Budd gath- ered for the two evidentiary films Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson requested: a four-hour documentary on the history of
Nazism and a one-hour documentary about the concentration camps. Schulberg also had access to 25 hours of the trial itself, which lasted nearly a year. Cobbling togeth- er the Nazis’ own propaganda footage (some of it shot by Leni Riefenstahl), some postwar footage he himself filmed and the trial testimony, Schulberg created a fasci- nating collage, juxtaposing the bitter truths of the war — its lies and cruelties and mass murders — with scenes of its most notori- ous architects being confronted about their roles. It’s a tawdry, dispiriting tableau. Viewers will be familiar with some of the most dis- tressing images in “Nuremberg,” but Schul- berg and his team managed to uncover their own fresh hells, such as a film de-
picting an early gas chamber, using a car with a long exhaust pipe leading into a small cabin. At the trial, the accused war criminals — 22 in all, including Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribben- trop and Albert Speer — looked alternately bored and disgusted, shielding their eyes from the movie lights with dark sunglasses. Because “Nuremberg” was aimed primar-
ily at German audiences, some references to German history and institutions will be lost on contemporary American audiences. But the specificity of its mission adds to the al- lure of a film that possesses a riveting brand of rough, raw immediacy. Seen alongside the equally extraordinary “A Film Unfin- ished,” with its Nazi footage of the Warsaw ghetto, “Nuremberg” provides yet another mesmerizing lesson in how even the most cynical propaganda can be recast in the service of truth. And with terms like “war crimes,” “military tribunals” and the “Nu- remberg principles” now part of a some- times overheated political vernacular, this heroically preserved film offers a sobering lesson in where and why many of those ideas were first conceived. The “today” of its original title may be been meant for a differ- ent generation, but “Nuremberg” couldn’t be more of the moment.
hornadaya@washpost.com Unrated. At the Avalon. In English, French, BBBB
Russian and German with English subtitles. Contains disturbing images of the Holocaust and World War II. 80 minutes.
GHETTOPHYSICS: WILL THE REAL PIMPS AND HOS PLEASE STAND UP!
An intriguing look at power
by Stephanie Merry The Apple iPad, IBM, the depilatory
Nads. Sometimes a bad name can give peo- ple pause. Such is the case with “Ghet- tophysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up!” a movie with a title that will undoubtedly alienate a large percent- age of the movie-going public. But even those disinclined by the off-putting moni- ker might find some ideas worth ponder- ing.
Written and directed by E. Raymond Brown and William Arntz (the man behind the 2004 “What the Bleep Do We Know!?”), the movie explores the power balance be- tween pimps and prostitutes, an omnipres- ent dynamic that, the film posits, shows up in boardrooms, foreign policy and most people’s day-to-day lives. It’s a story of ex- ploitation that transcends the streets, in which one person does all the work, an- other reaps the profit and, often, a third party receives the goods. This is as much about oil and diamonds as it is the stereo- type of a man in a colorful suit toting a shiny cane (although there are plenty of pimps in the film, too).
Like “What the Bleep,” this movie is a bit of a hodgepodge, blending an interview- driven documentary with a less remark- able story-based drama. The interviewees are particularly com-
pelling, and Arntz and Brown have secured some big names. Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Princeton profes- sor Cornel West offer a cerebral take, while Ice-T gives a more street-focused view. KRS-One, the charismatic and occasional- ly divisive hip-hop pioneer behind the “Stop the Violence” movement, gives in- sights as entertaining as they are provoca- tive. Unfortunately, the interviews are in- terspersed with a drama that clutters the message more than illuminates it. A col- lege professor, played by writer-director Brown, teaches his class “ghettophysics,” and some of the call and response (“Class, is this ghetto?” “Soooo ghetto!”) as well as other examples of goofy dialogue seem to follow the “Schoolhouse Rock” method of education, as if the filmmakers need to ei- ther dumb down or jazz up their hypothe- sis to make it more palatable.
Despite the periodic silly moments, there is value in “Ghettophysics.” Along with fodder for a lively discussion about free will, the docudrama invites viewers to take a moment to look at their own lives and ask: Who or what informs my choices? You might just be surprised by the answer.
stephanie.merry@
wpost.com
R. At AMC Magic Johnson Capital Center. Contains offensive language. 94 minutes.
BB COPYRIGHT MATTHEW BARNEY/MICHAEL JAMES O’BRIEN/GLADSTONE GALLERY A still from Matthew Barney’s five-part “Cremaster Cycle.”
The Cremaster Cycle American visual artist Matthew Barney’s epic work, “The Cremaster Cycle,” is coming to town. The five inscrutable films — which are not and will never be on DVD — will screen Friday through Oct. 14 at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Included in the screenings is a separate film by Barney, the 2007 “De Lama Lamina,” which he calls a 55-minute “meditation on the cre- ative process.” The films are not rated but contain material not suitable for children.
ALSO OPENING
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
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