'NUREMBERG'S' JUDGMENT DAY MINISERIES REVISITS REAL 'TRIAL OF CENTURY' AND WINS UNANIMOUSLY WITH POIGNANCY.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

As ``Nuremberg,'' TNT's laudably ambitious miniseries, takes pains to demonstrate, the Nuremberg trials were a pivotal event in global history. Robert Jackson (Alec Baldwin), the man who led the prosecution, is told early on that his works ``could establish a basis for conduct among nations that could alter history for generations to come.'' Jackson himself later describes the work before him as ``the secular equivalent of drafting the Ten Commandments.''

Given those platitudes, which really aren't that far off the mark, the job this film sets both for itself and its protagonists is given true dramatic heft, both emotionally and intellectually, and for the most part, ``Nuremberg'' lives up to its billing. Yes, it has its requisite TV-movie touches - mercifully, the furtive romance between Jackson and his assistant (Jill Hennessy) is dealt with on the fringes of the drama - and yes, at times, there's a certain antiseptic sheen over the proceedings, a tacit acknowledgment that this is TV dealing with Big Ideas and therefore is best handled with kid gloves.

But for the most part, this is important history - and therefore, by definition, high drama - executed sanely and smartly and, frequently, rivetingly.

In a nutshell: Following World War II, the Nuremberg trials posited the idea of war crimes, that behavior in brutally blind obeisance to one's fatherland could in fact be immoral if a country's leaders acted as atrociously as occurred in Germany. While Hermann Goering poo-poo'd the proceedings as simply a case of the winners ruthlessly lording it over the losers, the fact that some German leaders were found ``not guilty'' suggested that this was no kangaroo court: It was the world, as one, announcing that some acts simply were not tolerable, even under the extreme circumstances of combat.

Robert Jackson led the legal charge, and though today the trial would seem a slam-dunk, he experienced both soaring victories and embarrassing miscues during the trial. ``Nuremberg'' is a courtroom thriller writ large, larger than any other, and compels in its deft combination of history and drama.

And for the most part, performances skirt the stuff of ``Importance'' with a capital I. Baldwin is wonderfully understated in a role that'd have most actors salivating for their big moments; he makes a larger-than-life hero smaller somehow, merely human, and therefore empathetic and winning. Matt Craven, a character actor whose brilliance can be measured in how underappreciated his career has been, similarly underplays his role to good effect as a Jewish psychologist interacting with the German prisoners. Christopher Plummer, playing a British prosecutor, does little more than wryly beam how pleased he is to be on hand, but he does it with such dash and elan that you're glad he's there, too.

Likewise, Brian Cox's charismatic turn as the amoral Hermann Goering - who disquietingly befriends an American GI during the trial - attempts to underscore how everyday Germans were seduced by Nazism's lies. Len Cariou, as Francis Biddle, the American judge assigned to the proceedings, humanizes his monumental pettiness. Even Hennessy, aping fast-talking '40s movie heroines as Jackson's inhumanly efficient assistant, manages to scratch beneath the surface of her veneer-thin character.

Screenwriter David W. Rintels has keenly telescoped a massive story into telling segments; director Yves Simoneau has created a rich visual tapestry against which the story is told. Note: The last quarter of the second hour includes brutal documentary footage of Nazi atrocities that to this day remain excruciating to watch. But, much like Abby Mann and Stanley Kramer's 1961 Oscar winner ``Judgment at Nuremberg,'' the talents assembled have created a compelling drama for a younger generation who can never be reminded too much how darkly man's heart can ossify.

The facts

--The show: ``Nuremberg.''

--What: Docudrama about the war-crimes trial after World War II.

--The stars: Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Brian Cox, Michael Ironside, Matt Craven, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow.

--Where: TNT.

--When: Part 1: 8 and 10 p.m. and midnight tonight; Part 2: 8 and 10 p.m. and midnight Monday; also Friday and July 26 and 29.

--Our rating: Three and one half stars.

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Photo:

Alec Baldwin stars as U.S. Chief Justice Robert Jackson, who prosecutes members of the Nazi high command for the war crimes committed under their leadership, in ``Nuremberg.''