‘Nuremberg’ Probes the Mind, Raises Haunting Questions

Nazi-occupied Europe. Cambodia. Rwanda. Bosnia.

Again and again, we ask ourselves how civilized humans could be so inhuman. Again and again, we find no real answers.

Still, for the sake of vigilance, we must keep asking.

This simple truth rests at the core of the TNT movie “Nuremberg,” though it takes some patience to find it.

Neither full-on drama nor genuine documentary, this re-creation of the war crimes trial after World War II hovers uncertainly in-between. The pace plods, and at times the movie grows terribly self-important. Yet for all that, it’s worth the investment of four hours (three for the movie, another one for advertising) to view it Sunday and Monday.

There’s a lot here to keep you awake and thinking deep into the night. Foremost in this regard are four minutes of archival footage from the Nazi death camps, documenting the haunted, skeletal condition of those who survived and the unimaginable agonies etched onto the faces of those who didn’t. Shown during the trial in Nuremberg, Germany’s Palace of Justice, the images flicker in silence, while sobs erupt in the courtroom.

Incriminated by such evidence, 12 of the 22 defendants--including Nazi second-in-command Hermann Goering, chief of staff Wilhelm Keitel, operations chief Alfred Jodl and foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop--are sentenced to death.

Before that happens, however, “Nuremberg” raises such issues as: Is “crime” a concept that can be applied to the win-at-all-costs arena of war? Can a soldier be held accountable for following orders? And if war’s winners always get to judge the losers, isn’t that just another instance of might makes right?

The courtroom sessions are framed by the preparations of lead American prosecutor Robert Jackson (Alec Baldwin) and interspersed with visits to the prison where the charismatic Goering (Scottish-born actor Brian Cox) holds sway not only over most of his co-defendants but some of his American keepers as well.

Having aged into patrician handsomeness, Baldwin is commanding enough as the high-minded if morally fallible prosecutor, but the revelatory acting here comes from Cox. His Goering is unnervingly appealing--a high-spirited fellow with gracious manners, probing intelligence and a proud, amused disregard for his accusers. He reminds us that evil can wear a beguiling face, which makes it sometimes difficult to detect, until too late.

As written by David W. Rintels, based on Joseph E. Persico’s nonfiction “Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial,” and directed by Yves Simoneau, the movie delivers long stretches of didactic history, which it cheesily tries to enliven with such behind-the-scenes developments as a budding romance between the married Jackson and his brainy, beautiful secretary (former “Law & Order” co-star Jill Hennessy).

Still, it keeps on raising issues right up to the end, as one after another after another of the condemned Nazis meets his fate at the end of a rope. The unrelenting sequence rattles us to the core, as we realize that this search for justice has culminated in one last orgy of killing.

* “Nuremberg” airs Sunday and Monday, both nights at 8, 10 and midnight on TNT. The cable network has rated it TV-14-V (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14, with a special advisory for violence).