"Is this simple-minded?"
Undecided
to me, and I wonder if my impression is accurate. *Judgment at
Nuremberg*, for instance, and the specific bubble out of this mist is
the testimony of Hans, the Montgomery Cliff character.
He approaches the stand very dignified and in control, yet through the
course of his testimony he is reduced to great distress. One of the
nazi atrocities was the forced sterilization of those they considered
undesirable, among which they cited the simple minded, and so Hans was
one of their victims. The defense has introduced testimony the witness
indeed belonged in that category, at which point Hans claims "Since
that day, I am half of all I've ever been!" and then he whips out a
snapshot of mum and flashes it about the courtroom. "IS THIS SIMPLE
MINDED?"
The whole scene to me still reeks of a defense of eugenics, and the
nazis. This is so?
About this one, I'm
- Undecided
David Oberman
>Sometimes like puddles after the rain memories of old movies come back
>to me, and I wonder if my impression is accurate. *Judgment at
>Nuremberg*, for instance, and the specific bubble out of this mist is
>the testimony of Hans, the Montgomery Cliff character.
Unbidden memories of old movies is a good thing. Your problem, Tim,
seems to be that you recollect too many crappy movies. "Judgment at
Nuremberg"?! Put that out of your mind right now! It's Stanley Kramer,
for gosh sake.
>He approaches the stand very dignified and in control, yet through the
>course of his testimony he is reduced to great distress. One of the
>nazi atrocities was the forced sterilization of those they considered
>undesirable, among which they cited the simple minded, and so Hans was
>one of their victims. The defense has introduced testimony the witness
>indeed belonged in that category, at which point Hans claims "Since
>that day, I am half of all I've ever been!" and then he whips out a
>snapshot of mum and flashes it about the courtroom. "IS THIS SIMPLE
>MINDED?"
I can't comment. I haven't seen the film in question.
Opry phantom
NEIN!
Undecided
> Undecided <timocra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Sometimes like puddles after the rain memories of old movies come back
> >to me, and I wonder if my impression is accurate. *Judgment at
> >Nuremberg*, for instance, and the specific bubble out of this mist is
> >the testimony of Hans, the Montgomery Cliff character.
>
> Unbidden memories of old movies is a good thing. Your problem, Tim,
> seems to be that you recollect too many crappy movies. "Judgment at
> Nuremberg"?! Put that out of your mind right now! It's Stanley Kramer,
> for gosh sake.
I can't seem to do it, David! I cannot control my memory. Like, I see
an Ossie Shepherd longing for some specific elsewhere, and a morose
lorn little lady mounting the back end of a motorcycle in *Two-Lane
Backtop* springs to mind. When I was young, I had absolutely no taste
when it came to film. Zero. Many would say that hasn't changed, but do
you know anybody who would attend every single episode, 15 in all, of
*Commando Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen*? Do you know anybody who
has in second grade employed a playground strategm from a 1948 Batman
serial in real time?
I try to concentrate. That mysterious forbidding gothic mansion of
Kane's. But the little two-bedroom out on the plains just did not
offer enough resonance...
- Undecided
Tom Sutpen
> He approaches the stand very dignified and in control, yet through the
> course of his testimony he is reduced to great distress. One of the
> nazi atrocities was the forced sterilization of those they considered
> undesirable, among which they cited the simple minded, and so Hans was
> one of their victims. The defense has introduced testimony the witness
> indeed belonged in that category, at which point Hans claims "Since
> that day, I am half of all I've ever been!" and then he whips out a
> snapshot of mum and flashes it about the courtroom. "IS THIS SIMPLE
> MINDED?"
>
> The whole scene to me still reeks of a defense of eugenics, and the
> nazis. This is so?
******
I don't think Abby Mann or Stanley Kramer intended it as a defense of
eugenics . . . in fact, I'm certain they didn't . . . but Montgomery
Clift's performance at that point becomes so unhinged it may seem like
one. Your recollection is accurate, except for one element: When he
takes the stand, he's already kind of shaky. From what I've read,
Clift was in almost as rough a condition the day that scene was shot
as the character he was playing, and most of his "Was she . . . feeble-
minded?" bit when he loses it ran counter to the script (he was
supposed to say it once or twice, in other words, not over and over
again). It worked, but it worked so well that it may have changed the
intent of the scene. Of course, Kramer (not understanding such
nuances) thought it was a home run and left it all in, the genius.
'Judgement at Nuremberg' is worth watching just to hear Dietrich
recite the lyrics to 'Lili Marlene'; the rest just kills time.
Tom Sutpen
Undecided
> I don't think Abby Mann or Stanley Kramer intended it as a defense of
> eugenics . . . in fact, I'm certain they didn't . . . but Montgomery
> Clift's performance at that point becomes so unhinged it may seem like
> one.
I think the debate stole a base, as most are engineered to do. A
corollary might be Magoon's taking back the mike from the imbecile who
reported her belief Obama was "an Arab" to reassure his lynch mob
Barak was, instead, a decent person. This dichotomy was allowed to
stand up until Olbermann's Countdown last night!
To my memory, the point in *Judgment* that forced sterilization of the
less mentally competent, like, for instance, Dohbya, hinged only on a
finding the subject was in fact retarded. Nobody said in the movie the
whole project was an atrocity from the get-go, did they?
But, actually, I'm
- Undecided