“If we could psychologically define evil we could make sure this never happens again.” [Um. About that…]

Story: After the surrender of Germany in WWII, the hunt was on for officers of the Third Reich. As these war criminals were slowly rounded up (well, as many as could be found), the Allied powers asked themselves one question; what do we do with them? Would they simply be executed, Geneva Conventions bedamned? Or would there be a trial? There had never been a trial of one country’s governmental elite by other countries. So they’d have to not only figure out legality, but make sure that if these men and women went to trial, that the guilty would be punished. Douglas Kelley led a group of psychiatrists to find out if the imprisoned were capable of standing trial.

Genre I’d put it in: Historical Docudramas That Feel Way Too Relevant
Release Date: 2025
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, and the Nuremberg trials themselves.

Gotta say: I love courtroom dramas. Judgement at Nuremberg is one of my all-time favorite films. (Closely behind the original 12 Angry Men, if anyone needs a pub quiz question about my ass.) While the 1961 film is a classic with a cast of legends – Spencer Tracy! Marlene Dietrich! Montgomery Clift! Judgement felt like a play that unfolded in front of you. With it’s sharp, gritty realism, Nuremberg feels like you’re being pulled into history by force. It’s a powerful film with a powerful message, and it’s one we really need in times like these.

The cast is basically working as an ensemble, with Rami Malek and Russell Crowe leading the pack as Dr. Kelley and Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force) Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second in command. The strange mix of friendship and mistrust paints a fascinating picture of the goings-on behind the scenes, as the Nuremburg trials were prepped, and as they proceeded. Getting stars like Malek and Crowe in these roles was an excellent decision; this film could have easily gone off the rails had more, well, histrionically inclined performers had been cast. These two face each other like animals on the attack, with brainpower rather than brawn their weapons. Crowe’s understated, slick performance makes it easy to see why Malek’s Kelley warned his team to be wary of him. And Malek portrays Kelley as a man who was both disgusted by German atrocities, yet fascinated by Göring the man.

Special shout-out to Leo Woodall as Sgt. Howie Triest, an American translator that worked with Kelley and in the film acts as a sort of attaché to the psychiatrist. Woodall doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, but his Triest is not only a sort of Everyman in the story, but a man who has a whole lot more riding on these trials than Kelley initially suspects. The rest of the cast is excellent, but as the film focuses on Kelley and Göring, they’re basically background dancers. Just really, really talented background dancers.

Writer/director James Vanderbilt has a mixed bag in his filmography, with excellent work like Zodiac, and clunkers like Independence Day: Resurgence. Luckily, he’s mostly on point here. Sometimes the plot feels like it skates on the surface of the trial and the real life individuals involved, but with so many historical figures introduced, the film would probably be at least double it’s run time otherwise. At over two hours, there wasn’t a moment that felt like it dragged, but again, with so many characters, trying to get their side/viewpoints sometimes added a bit too much to the story, turning my head when I should have kept my focus on the main pair. Skating on the surface is kinda required with all the subplots, even though I wish some had been jettisoned to focus on the back-and-forth of our leads. Malek and Crowe were definitely up for the task.

Nuremburg comes out at a time when our country, and to a lesser extent our world, is in a state of upheaval. Things we’d taken for granted for decades are suddenly being dismantled, changed, or outright destroyed. “History will remember this” is bandied about on social media, and while that’s most certainly true, it doesn’t help ease things as we go through our day-to-day lives right now. This film shows hope at the end of the tunnel, at least the tunnel that was WWII and the Holocaust. May a light shine for us all.

Hopes your knowledge of the history of these atrocities will do the heavy lifting

#Protip: Yep, people who were on trial were given sunglasses. The lights for filming the proceedings were extremely bright.