Nuremberg, 2025

Review of the film “Nuremberg” — a history lesson with Russell Crowe and Rami Malek

An academic drama about the most important trial of the 20th century.

On May 7, 1945, Reich Marshal Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and his family surrender to American soldiers. Hitler had already committed suicide, so the Allies had captured Nazi Germany's top political and military leader. US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) tries to convince all members of the anti-Hitler coalition of the need for a tribunal to try the criminals of the Third Reich. The team of prosecutors was made up of lawyers from the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. In preparation for the Nuremberg trials, military psychiatrist Douglas Kelly (Rami Malek) interviews all the defendants and even falls under Göring's spell.

Nuremberg is based on Jack El-Hay's 2013 documentary book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. This is James Vanderbilt's second directorial project. The first was the biographical drama about the television scandal The Truth, starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. Once again, the author takes on a story based on real events. Vanderbilt is the screenwriter of the new trilogy Scream, Zodiac, and The Amazon's Treasure, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man and Murder on the Orient Express, so the career of the director of Nuremberg has been uneven.

The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Despite its impressive cast, Nuremberg had a modest budget of less than $10 million, which the filmmakers easily recouped at the domestic box office. Filming took place in Budapest, which has recently become a favorite location for many Hollywood directors.

Hundreds of books and dozens of films have been dedicated to the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet documentary The People's Tribunal was released in 1946, immediately after the tribunal ended. Perhaps the most canonical and well-known film about this historical event remains Stanley Kramer's 1961 drama Judgment at Nuremberg. In 2000, the miniseries Nuremberg was released, starring Alec Baldwin as Robert Jackson. A Russian version was presented to domestic audiences in 2023—in Nuremberg, Nikolai Lebedev mixed courtroom drama with a romantic story.

Perhaps filmmakers will never stop making movies about the horrific Second World War. The stream of films about the Nuremberg trials, which set the standard for all subsequent tribunals against war criminals, is unlikely to dry up. Given that life on earth is not becoming any calmer, and the world continues to be shaken by endless hostilities, a reminder of retribution for murder cannot be superfluous. However, the 2025 film Nuremberg shows events through the eyes of Americans. The British still occasionally appear in the background, while the French and Soviet citizens seem to be absent from the tribunal.

Vanderbilt's drama reminds us once again that the representatives of the alliance of countries that won World War II did not want to shoot or hang Nazis without trial or investigation. It was important for the lawyers to set a precedent and prove that even monsters deserve fair justice. The director shows in detail the difficulties faced by the organizers of the trial. Even the lawyers had legitimate fears that the court would turn into a platform for Goering.

In Vanderbilt's film, the running time is divided roughly equally between the preparations for the tribunal and the proceedings of the Nuremberg trials. The author finds an unusual perspective on a familiar topic. Psychiatrist Douglas Kelly enthusiastically conducts a series of interviews with Göring and is struck by the charisma, intellect, and courage of the Reich Marshal, who cynically jokes, recalls his beloved wife and daughter with warm words, and denies a good half of the terrible crimes attributed to Hitler's right-hand man. Russell Crowe, even in his Nazi uniform, is so charming that viewers begin to sympathize with the murderer. The horrific footage from the liberated concentration camps shown at the trial brings both the psychiatrist and the audience back to harsh reality. Vanderbilt does not spare the audience and willingly resorts to manipulative images of mountains of decomposing corpses. Particularly sensitive viewers may find this uncomfortable.

Nuremberg Nuremberg was created according to all the canons of Hollywood conversational drama. Most of the time, Kelly and Goering talk in the defendant's cell. The film could easily have been turned into a theatrical production. Vanderbilt shoots the entire drama in medium shots and in a confined space, simply switching the viewer's attention from one character to another.

Although the outcome of the trial is well known, it is quite interesting to follow the unfolding events. However, Vanderbilt is let down by his stinginess with artistic devices and excessive meticulousness. The author's humanism commands respect, but he fails to demonstrate any talent as a director. The film is definitely worth watching for fans of Crowe and Malek and for viewers who are interested in the Nuremberg trials and 20th-century history in general. This overly academic drama approaches a terrible subject cautiously and according to all the rules of cinema from half a century ago. Kelly, like today's viewers, is confused: pure evil lurks in the most ordinary people, human life is worthless, and there is no hope for repentance.

This article was sponsored by Mikhail Iospa