Directed By James Vanderbilt

Starring – Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon

The Plot – Chronicles the eponymous trials held by the Allied Forces against the defeated Nazi regime. The film will center on American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), who is tasked with determining whether Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes and finds himself in a complex battle of wits with Hermann Göring (Crowe), Hitler’s right-hand man

Rated PG-13 for violent content involving the Holocaust, strong disturbing images, suicide, some adult language, smoking and brief drug content.

NUREMBERG | Official Trailer #1 (2025)

POSITIVES

In already being such an avid appreciator of courtroom drama’s, there was a built in interest for me to see “Nuremberg”, and while those scenes of give and take struggle between legalities offers a compelling battle for leverage that is maximized by Vanderbilt’s direction underlining the importance of such a case, it’s honestly the complexity of material leading up to the courtroom that emphatically earned my interests, especially in the script’s fearlessness to make observations about both sides that are often overlooked in the grander picture of World War II. For starters, I appreciated that the film wasn’t afraid to grapple with the notion that human beings existed in such morally irreprehensible group as the Nazi’s, as not only did this further convey the tragic element of grounded people turning to evil, but also vividly illustrated how such people, particularly Crowe’s Goring, were so easily to fall into the extents of their charms and disarming cadence, utilizing the psychological side to Hermann in ways that make him feel like the Hannibal Lechter of this world, in that he’s charming and sophisticated enough, but won’t hesitate to lash out at you when it matters most. The film absolutely doesn’t justify the actions of the Nazi’s, but rather zeroes in on those unconfined to a prison cell, guilty by association, who are caught in the crosshairs of having to start their lives all over again, and with the compelling drama of the stakes that continuously hangs in the balance of these established characters, it proves the unrelenting effects that still linger even today of Germany’s darkest days, even to the extent of pointing out the ironies of America’s own murderous numbers in Asia, which utilize different framing, in order to distance themselves from the notion that they are anything like a hate-filled group seeking Holocaust. In addition to this, Vanderbilt makes the stunning decision to implement real life stock footage documenting these Nazi camps into the various depositions of the courtroom, featuring the kind of horrifying imagery that lingers unrelentingly in the minds of its audience, but those necessary to see, in order to never repeat the man-made mistakes of humanity once more. These are the moments in the film that undoubtedly hit the hardest, with regards to the emotionality of the engagement, but even beyond that speak wonders to the kind of responsibility that James takes to the unfathomable idea that the six million executed Jewish citizens could even possibly be manufactured by Americanized propaganda, allowing the film to transcend away from its dramatized undertaking, and instead cross into the dreaded depths of real-life, where even the most exaggerated of cinema couldn’t effectively mirror the unsettling realities that this took shape in our world, merely eighty or so years ago. Beyond the production’s decision to take advantage of stock footage, it also artistically elicits a fully-fledged transformation into the captivity of its prominent period piece that is unanimously executed in everything from the costume designs and overall wardrobe, to the gloomily grainy texture of Dariusz Wolski’s authentic cinematography. Shooting a majority of your film inside of a prison already does enough to cement an ominous feeling in the atmosphere, but when it’s matched seamlessly by off-natural color grading and these condensed frames, in order to emphasize the claustrophobia of Goring’s dwindled optimism towards eventual freedom, it crafts a very up-front invasiveness and palpably airborne toxicity that feels permanent on account of the tight-knit proximity to so many evil people at its focusing disposal, proving ample execution was paid to its minimalized ten million dollar budget, in order to harvest the unresolved ghosts that still persist in such a historically rich place, but for all of the wrong reasons. The film is also acted incredibly by such an extensively eclectic range of actors to this ensemble, with Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and even a few scene-stealing instances from Richard E. Grant making the most of their shared screen time. Crowe in particular gives his best dramatic work in years while fleshing out the dichotomy of Goring’s manipulative demeanor, where one second he is charmingly seductive as a curiously gentle party, before transitioning into a shark that smells blood in the courtroom, and Malek, while interacting with Crowe in a game of one-upmanship that feeds into a greater significance in psychology for each of their characters, digs deepest during scenes where the morality of his character get called into question, where even the occasional over-exaggeration of Malek’s deliveries can’t detract or distract from such a gifted actor holding humanity in the palm of his hand, as the quirks and ticks of his subdued studying articulate a man who sees the best and worst in people, to a fault.

NEGATIVES

If “Nuremberg” was made in the 90’s, it would undoubtedly be a Best Picture nominee at the Academy Awards, but the time since some of our most irresponsible nominations have opened us up to the flaws of these Oscar darlings, particularly in the shortcomings of a screenplay that regretfully reaches for so much, and grasps so little. While the character study of Goring is the single most fascinating element of the film, the abandonment of other introduced Nazi generals after their initial introductions, makes the film’s feel like much is edited out of its finished product, especially with the emotional arcs of them by film’s end falling so flat in execution, as the film reaches for epic triumphs, but instead flails melodramatics to subdue the occasional corniness of what occurs. On top of this, the film’s structure spends half of its time inside of the interrogation of Douglas with Hermann, and the other half alongside Michael Shannon’s prosecuting lawyer, Robert H. Jackson, preparing for the single biggest case of his life, and while they occasionally merge together to make the film feel like it’s at least one cohesive unit persisting under the contained umbrella of its creativity, the latter definitely falls flat in its parallel to the former, creating these sags with the pacing consistency of the movie, that already has its own problems with an overly bloated two-and-a-half hour runtime. While there’s definitely plenty of fascinating elements to explore in Vanderbilt’s ambitious screenplay, the burden of repetitious exposition scenes during the movie’s weak and underwhelming second act, prove he isn’t always putting his ideas to motion, resulting in an engagement that feels every inch of its runtime, even without the tedium of boredom that has often weighed heavily on my dwindling interests towards a film. For my money, there were plenty of scenes that could’ve either been converged with one another, or others omitted completely from the finished draft, in order to maintain some of the urgency that is sorely missing from the consistency of the engagement, leading to an air-tight two hour version that makes the most of its minutes without meandering, all the while surmising an importantly influential story that doesn’t come close to overstaying its welcome. Finally, I regretfully found some of Bryan Tyler’s compositions in the film’s score to sometimes be monotonously unambitious, while other times feeling a bit too abrasively artificial in the impulses of the subdued scenes that they were accompanying, summoning some of his most underwhelming work to date. This is especially surprising for the same man who helmed themes in “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, or “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, as both elicit the energy and exuberating of their respective worlds, with instrumental electiveness that refuses repetition, but here so much of what I’m hearing feels uninspiring in a stock kind of way, and it shortchanges the emotional pay-off of so many scene deliveries in ways that can’t quite maximize the triumph, even as the acting is doing so much of the heavy lifting already for him.

OVERALL
“Nuremberg” is above all else a compelling courtroom drama about the ramifications of evil, and the side of history that those choose to reside on once humanity and empathy have been expunged from the equation. While James Vanderbilt’s film feels a bit too overly indulgent at two-and-a-half hours, featuring repetitious scenes that don’t always add enticingly to the engagement, the magnetism of his extensive ensemble taps effortlessly into the conscience of its characters, in ways that transcend the fictional enveloping, and with several equally fascinating talking points within the script, avoids the Americanized propaganda that spoon-feeds the obviousness of its intentions, instead choosing to tell a story about those who are put to justice for their devious deeds. What a concept in 2025

My Grade: 7.2 or B-