‘Just because someone is your ally, does not mean they are on your side...’
It’s a brave move to make a film about the Nuremberg Trials when Judgement at Nuremberg, an incredible film, already exists. One of the most jarring moments in that film comes during the eponymous Nuremberg Trials sequence in which director Stanley Kramer intercuts actual footage from the Nazi death camps into the proceedings. It was powerful in 1961, and that awful footage retains a dark power today – as evidenced by the fact that writer-director James Vanderbilt uses the same technique in his 2025 film, Nuremberg, to great effect…
Here, we follow U.S. Army psychiatrist Lt Col. Douglas Kelley (Remi Malek) as he spends hundreds of hours with German Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) in an attempt to aid the Allied Forces in their efforts to try Göring and many other prominent members of the Nazi party for international war crimes. The starry supporting cast includes Richard E. Grant, Colin Hanks and Michael Shannon.
Nuremberg is one of many recent films that have been the subject of a disconnect between critics and audiences. Essentially, critics didn’t like it, but audiences loved it. The film made more than $70 million from a $10 million budget. Critics didn’t like it because it’s too Americanised, too hysterical, too bombastic. As ever in these situations, the critics have forgotten what cinema is for. Is Nuremberg entertaining? That’s the only question that matters. And the answer is a resounding yes. Sure, Crowe’s accent is inconsistent, and when he goes big, he goes REALLY big, but this is still an utterly absorbing performance. The supporting cast excel too, particularly Shannon and Hanks, but really, everyone is firing on all cylinders here. It helps, of course, that Vanderbilt’s script is sensational. As we are talking about the man who wrote Zodiac, one of the greatest films ever made, this is perhaps unsurprising.
I loved Nuremberg. It’s dramatic, it’s thought-provoking, hell, it’s provocative in general. This film made me feel things. Anger. Disbelief. Sadness. Admiration. As with any courtroom drama, or any good one anyway, this film hits many of the same beats as a sports movie: a rising star, things fall apart, enemies forced to work together, redemption and sacrifice and a victory that comes at a cost. Really, Nuremberg has it all. I loved it.
