Nuremberg (2025)
As of 2026, it’ll be eighty years since the initial Nuremberg trials and the execution of twenty-one top-ranking Nazi officers. One of the central figures in these early trials was Hermann Goring, who didn’t meet his death at the gallows but committed suicide under mysterious circumstances.
Before that, though, Goring and the other officers were subjected to rigorous psychological examinations by two American psychiatrists to determine whether these men were fit to stand trial and what motivated them to commit such acts of atrocity. Were these men clinically insane, or were they in their right minds? Nuremberg looks at the relationship between Goring and one of the American psychologists, Douglas Kelley and how that played out as the trials went on.
Goring was, if nothing else, disarmingly charming. He could carry on a conversation easily, and if someone didn’t know who he was, he might have been mistaken for a nice person.
Douglas Kelley was cocky in his own way. He could easily tell if someone was lying, and he thought he could read Goring so well that he could figure out every little trick. As time goes on, he gradually draws Goring out and inspires trust. He even teaches Goring some slight of hand and delivers letters from Goring to his wife and daughter.
However, Kelley’s plans aren’t so easy as they seem. He comes to believe that Goring and his fellow officers are normal people who are capable of terrible things. Kelley’s assistant, Sergeant Howie Triest, believes the Nazis are anything but normal, as does Kelley’s fellow officer, Dr. Gustav Gilbert, the latter of whom even comes to blows with Kelley over it.
And why have trials to begin with? Justice Robert Jackson believed very strongly that the Nazis must be brought up on war crimes and thus be linked them forever to the Final Solution, which Jackson was concerned would be denied one day.
As it’s turned out in the years since, Jackson was absolutely right. For that matter, we still haven’t learned that lesson adequately.
Nuremberg doesn’t begin to cover the trials in their entirety, as its focus is, again, on Kelley and Goring. It’s predictable if someone comes in with prior knowledge, but even then there’s still plenty to chew on.
Most of this is due to Russell Crowe and Rami Malek’s performances. Malek is intense but likeable as Douglas Kelley, a man who always seemed to have more tricks up his sleeve. Literally. Kelley is adept at magic tricks, especially sleight of hand, which he teaches an all-too-interested Goring.
Russell Crowe as Goring legit made my skin crawl. He’s Goring right down to the skin tags, engaging but keeping his real thoughts close. He and Kelley each flatter themselves that they’re one step ahead of the other, but each is too smart for their own good. Both Crowe and Malek’s performances have “Oscar bait” written all over them.
Personally, I agree with Kelley’s rival psychiatrist that Goring and his fellow Nazis had deeply-rooted psychological problems. Goring maintained, for instance, that he knew nothing about the Final Solution, as that was Heinrich Himmel’s doing, but as Hitler’s second in command, how could he not have known? Hitler’s forces could barely breathe without Hitler’s approval, so Goring must have known about the Final Solution.
There’s no doubt that these Nazi officers lied like breathing and showed no remorse, even when film footage of the gas chambers and crematoriums at the death camps were shown in the trial. I’m no psychologist, but the behavior of these officers reads malignant narcissism and sociopathy to me.
Then again, these were men who were doing what any human being can be capable above given the right circumstances and brainwashing, because we live in a fallen world and possess a sin nature.
The film also effectively addresses the way the Nazis used emigration as the cover story for the mass murder of men, women and children, but like the prosecution and the judges at the real Nuremberg trial, it doesn’t let them off the hook.
Aside from a few minor liberties, Nuremberg is meticulous in its accuracy. Courtroom 600 looks just the way it did during the trial, and the characters fill in the background information very naturally, as those who conducted and observed the trials didn’t have eighty years of hindsight by which to judge the Holocaust.
It’s interesting watching them be honestly bowled over when the footage of the camps is shown, especially the bodies being rolled into the mass graves, and it’s surprising that no one is reaching for sick bags. Maybe they did privately, who knows.
Nuremberg is, indeed, a sobering movie. It’s also a long one, but we need that time for reflection, both during the film and after the credits roll. May we never forget.
Nuremberg is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: A
Principal Cast: Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek, Lydia Peckham, Leo Woodall, Colin Hanks, Richard E. Grant, John Slattery, Wrenn Schmidt, Lotte Verbeek, Andreas Piatchmann, Mark O’Brien, Wayne Brett, Steven Pacey, Peter Jordan, Roderick Hill, Fleur Bremmer, Wolfgang Cerny
Directed by James Vanderbilt.
Written by James Vanderbilt and Jack El-Hai.