NUREMBERG : Tuesday 9th December 2025

I saw the M Rated 'NUREMBERG' this week at my local multiplex, and this American psychological thriller historical drama film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by James Vanderbilt in only his second Directorial outing following his 2015 'Truth', although he is perhaps best known as a prolific script writer and Producer of many Hollywood blockbusters and has worked with numerous top Directors. This film is based on the 2013 book 'The Nazi and the Psychiatrist' by Jack El-Hai. The film had its World Premiere in the Gala Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival in early September this year where it received a four-minute standing ovation, one of TIFF's longest standing ovations ever, and was released theatrically in the US in early November having received generally positive reviews from critics, and has so far taken US$20M at the Box Office.

The film opens on 7th May 1945, one day before Nazi Germany surrenders to the Allied forces, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering (Russell Crowe), Hitler's former second-in-command, surrenders with his family to US forces in Austria. At the same time, Associate Justice Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) is informed of Goering's arrest, which prompts a discussion with his secretary, Elsie Douglas (Wrenn Schmidt), about establishing an international tribunal to charge the surviving Nazi leadership with war crimes. Initially, the US is reluctant to support Jackson's plans preferring instead summary executions by hanging, however, Jackson persists by winning the support of Pope Pius XII (Giuseppe Cederna) by implying his knowledge of the latter's controversial relationship with the Nazi regime back in 1933.

Meanwhile, US Army psychiatrist Major Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is summoned to Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, to evaluate the mental health of twenty-two Nazi leaders who are being held under Allied custody, including Goering, who have been selected for prosecution. Reporting to the Warden, Col. Burton Andrus (John Slattery), Kelley begins his assignment with the assistance of interpreter Sergeant Howard Triest (Leo Woodall). While initial meetings with Goering are civil, other prisoners such as Robert Ley (Tom Keune) and Julius Streicher (Dieter Riesle) respond with contempt and anger. Personally, using a series of cognitive tests and through conversation Kelley appraises Goering as intelligent yet highly narcissistic, and plans to use his notes of those discussions and meetings to write a tell-all book for personal gain, once his assignment is complete.

In time, Jackson and British barrister Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Richard E. Grant) are made prosecuting counsels for the newly-established International Military Tribunal to be held in Nuremberg, Germany - which in turn, charges the detainees with crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy. In the lead up to the trial, Kelley and Goering interact well. Goering even helps Kelley examine former-Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess (Andreas Pietschmann), in exchange for being allowed to write to his wife Emmy (Lotte Verbeek) and daughter Edda (Fleur Bremmer). Kelley also develops a rapport with them, acting as a courier for the exchange of letters between them and Goering. In private, Kelley is approached by Jackson to report the prisoners' legal defence to him in order to help steer the prosecution in the right direction. Kelley responds with the argument of Doctor and patient privilege, but is persuaded to comply with Jackson's wishes on the basis of the greater good.

Before the trial begins, Ley commits suicide by strangling himself in his cell. As a result Andrus summons psychologist Gustave Gilbert (Colin Hanks) to provide a second opinion. At the trial's beginning, Jackson delivers a strong opening statement highlighting the need for accountability, while Goering is silenced and instead ordered to enter a plea, to which he and the other prisoners plead not guilty. During adjournments, Kelley learns that Goering's family had been arrested in connection with his reported art thefts and requests Andrus to intervene. Goering later learns of this development from Gilbert, causing his and Kelley's relationship to sour. Outside the cell, in a specially designed enclosed walkway for the prisoners, Kelley and Gilbert get into a fist fight, and are hauled in front of Andrus, who asks Gilbert if he wishes to press charges against Kelley, to which he responds with a 'no'. 

When the trial recommences, the prosecution shows film footage displaying the regime's atrocities committed inside its numerous concentration camps, causing an upset Kelley to confront Goering, who had previously denied any knowledge of such actions. Goering continues his stance of unawareness, and resorts towards denying the atrocities or comparing them with alleged crimes committed by the Allies. Dismayed, Kelley proceeds to get drunk and unwittingly reveals his private discussions with Goering to Lila (Lydia Peckham), a journalist with The Boston Globe, who subsequently publishes the information as headline front page news. Infuriated, Andrus relieves Kelley and orders him out, but not before revealing that he was able to get Emmy and Edda released. 

While waiting at the train station to leave back to the US Kelley meets Triest who reveals that he is a German-born Jew, who grew up in Germany but was given a one way ticket to the US aboard a ship as a teenager to stay with a cousin in New York before settling in Detroit. After the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbour he waited to be called up, which eventually came in 1943, and he actively joined the war effort landing on the Normandy beaches two days after D-Day. While his younger sister was able to escape to Switzerland, his parents were sent to Auschwitz in 1942 and never survived.

Triest warns that the regime's cruelty went unchallenged because of a general impassivity towards evil, which compels Kelley to stay and submit all his private notes on Goering to Jackson and Fyfe - predicting that Goering plans to use the trial to defend the regime's conduct. True to his predictions, Goering is able to elude Jackson's cross-examination of him, and proceeds to declare that his decree of the Final Solution was actually intended as a 'complete and total solution' focused on the emigration of Germany's Jews rather than extermination. In turn, Jackson's ire towards Goering earns him a stern disapproval by the tribunal, prompting Fyfe to take over. Fyfe exploits Goering's vanity and goads him into overtly admitting his continued loyalty to Hitler despite the atrocities, which finally corners him. At the end of the trial, Goering, together with the remaining prisoners, are all sentenced to death by hanging.

Kelley pays Goering a final visit before leaving, where he comes to terms with Goering's true nature. On 15th October 1946, the night before his scheduled execution, Goering commits suicide by ingesting a cyanide capsule, much to Andrus' anger. The remaining executions proceed as scheduled with two journalists for the US (one of which is Lila), two from the UK, two from France and two from Russia being allowed to sit in and witness the proceedings. Streicher meanwhile, suffers a nervous breakdown in his cell, before Triest comes to his aid, and who had yearned to reveal his Jewish heritage to Streicher before his execution, but is instead compelled to gently assist him to the gallows.

Kelley, traumatised by his experiences at Nuremberg, returns to the US and publishes his tell-all book, '22 Cells in Nuremberg', and in a live radio broadcast loses his cool warning about the possibility of a future regime parallel to the Nazis in the US or any other country around the world. When he is marched out of the studio one of the presenters says to Kelley that disrespecting your country is no way to sell your book. The film's closing credits reveal that Kelley resorted to alcoholism, that his book was a failure and that he committed suicide in 1958 by ingesting cyanide just as Goering did. Triest managed to reunite with his sister and died at the age of 93 in 2016. Jackson's prosecutorial efforts at Nuremberg laid the foundation for international prosecution of war crimes.

'Nuremberg' is a well executed historical drama offering that is underpinned by an on point ensemble cast, with particular standout performances by Russell Crowe especially, and Michael Shannon and Richard E. Grant. As for Rami Malek's performance I can't help feeling he may have been miscast with his permanently pursed lips, almost vacant facial expression, his wild staring eyes and his magic tricks - where did that come from? Director James Vanderbilt has delivered us a gripping true story account of a trial that changed the course of history that is made all the more effective by including actual archival footage of the horrors uncovered when the Concentration Camps were liberated, which is central to the story here. The film serves as a timely reminder, 80 years on, of the horrors of war, and whether as a global community we have really learned anything from it, given the current geopolitical situation we currently finds ourselves in. 'Nuremberg' is certainly well worth the price of your movie ticket as a history lesson, for Russell Crowe's compelling performance, and as a conversation starter as I did with my 24 year old son. 

'Nuremberg' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-