flixtime

Hello all, just thought I'd post this as I thought it might be of interest to some (especially since the film is not available on DVD). Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg is on TCM tonight. I've only seen the film once and that was years ago in high school; we watched the film in class over a weeks time (probably not the ideal manner for viewing a film (of any kind)). I'm looking forward to watching it again. Anyway, I hope someone finds this of interest.

Saturday, December 14th at 11:30 PM (EST)
Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)
An aging American judge presides over the trial of Nazi war criminals.
Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell.
Director: Stanley Kramer. BW 186m. LBX

In addition to the actors listed above, it also stars Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, and Montgomery Clift. Furthermore the cast includes Judy Garland, Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes), and William Shatner.

Edited to add: for those interested, here's the IMDb.com link for Judgment at Nuremberg:
Judgment at Nuremberg at IMDb.com

Dimension X

Good to see you back, flixtime. Thanks for the reminder. Judgment At Nuremberg is a great movie (which I haven't seen in a number of years).

TCM is also showing the letterboxed version of A Christmas Story (1983) today at 4:00PM (EST). I thought I'd check it out and compare it to the full-frame DVD version.

flixtime

Thanks!

Though I've been around (Book Forum, DVD Forum), I certainly have been a little inconsistent in my participation (Vampyr's deja vu Glenn Ford thread (now remedied)) lately.

Not to hijack my own thread but have you (or anyone else who reads this thread) ever seen the film Heaven's Gate? If so, what did you think of it? Do they ever show it on TCM? I've never watched the film and am considering a blind buy of the DVD. I started a thread over in the DVD forum and received a solid response but I just thought I'd check with you (and others who might read this) too.

Dimension X

The only time I watched Heaven's Gate was on cable about a year after it came out. I don't remember much about it. I don't think I found it to be as bad as it was said to be (back then), but I haven't gone out of my way to watch it again either.

It's an MGM movie and it shows up in a search of the TCM library (but not the schedule), so I'm sure they will show it sometime.

flixtime

Thanks Dimension X for the feedback on Heaven's Gate.

And to get back on-topic (kinda/sorta), I'm also going to check out:

Monday Dec. 16th at 6:00 AM
The Life Of Emile Zola (1937)
The famed writer risks his reputation to defend a Jewish army officer accused of treason.
Paul Muni, Joseph Schildkraut, Gale Sondergaard.
Director: William Dieterle. BW 116m. CC

I've never seen the film but it caught my eye just now while scanning the TCM listings. I checked over at IMDb and the film received many Oscar nominations and in fact won the Oscar for Best Picture (1937), it also won a couple of other Oscars that year. Edited to add: the film is not available on DVD.

Here is the IMDb.com listing for anyone interested:
The Life of Emile Zola listing at IMDb.com

Buck Turgidson

Judgement has some fine performances: Clift is really emotionally raw, Widmark does his usual quietly effective job, ditto for the great Tracy. Marlene Dietrich has a compelling little turn and finally, Mirable Dictu, Canadian ham Shatner is very good. Burt Lancaster probably turns out the best performance as a morally compromised German judge. Watch also for Maximillian Schell's role, he won an Oscar for it.

In re Heaven's Gate, it's flawed, but actually pretty good. Cimino was the first guy to be a victim of that "Who the Hell does this guy think he is?" manufactured campaign of resentment against a Director who runs over budget.

They tried it w/ Coppola for Apocalypse Now, and while they didn't torpedo his career like they did Cimino's, Apocalypse has labored to get it's current high standing in the pantheon.

flixtime

Thank you Buck Turgidson for your comments on both Judgment at Nuremberg and Heaven's Gate.

My recording of Judgment at Nuremberg went smoothly last night so I'm all set to watch it at my leisure.

As far as Heaven's Gate goes, I'm leaning strongly towards a blind buy of the DVD. I have a feeling the film will be a little too "artsy" and/or self-important (overlong scenes, etc.) for me to truly like it but as a fan of the Western genre I should probably check it out.

I am certainly tempted to wait a while and see if the film ever pops up on TCM's schedule but my gut feeling is that I don't expect it to show up anytime soon. The DVD is fairly inexpensive and it seems that the concern I had regarding the subtitling on the DVD might not be too much of an issue. If nothing else, it should make for an interesting conversation piece in my DVD collection (though I don't actually foresee my ever having a conversation with anyone about my DVD collection, well, except for folks here). It seems to me that Heaven's Gate is one of those films that everyone knows about (and has formed an opinion on) though many have not actually seen the film. And lastly, I suppose watching Heaven's Gate would allow me to add a notch to my film snob gunbelt (especially useful for me whose film preferences tend to lie more in the mainstream than not).