Nuremberg (2025 film): Difference between revisions

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==Reception==

==Reception==

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|70| |115|Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, ”Nuremberg” is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject.|ref=y|access-date=November 10, 2025}} {{MC film|61|26|ref=y|access-date=November 10, 2025}}

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|70||115|Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, ”Nuremberg” is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject.|ref=y|access-date=November 10, 2025}} {{MC film|61|26|ref=y|access-date=November 10, 2025}}

Writing for the [[Daily Beast]], Nick Schrager found the film to be flawed in spite of the star actors in the film and pointed out director Vanderbilt’s flaws by stating: “Nuremberg is constructed like an old-fashioned awards-bait period piece, complete with trailer-ready lines of dialogue that put a neat-and-tidy button on scenes. There’s a mechanical quality to Vanderbilt’s plotting that negates the unexpected and enlightening”.<ref>Nick Shrager. Review of ”Nuremberg”. Nov. 8, 2025. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/russell-crowe-makes-for-a-menacing-nazi-in-nuremberg/] </ref>

Writing for the [[Daily Beast]], Nick Schrager found the film to be flawed in spite of the star actors in the film and pointed out director Vanderbilt’s flaws by stating: “Nuremberg is constructed like an old-fashioned awards-bait period piece, complete with trailer-ready lines of dialogue that put a neat-and-tidy button on scenes. There’s a mechanical quality to Vanderbilt’s plotting that negates the unexpected and enlightening”.<ref>Nick Shrager. Review of ”Nuremberg”. Nov. 8, 2025. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/russell-crowe-makes-for-a-menacing-nazi-in-nuremberg/] </ref>

American historical drama film by James Vanderbilt

Nuremberg is a 2025 American psychological thriller historical drama film written, co-produced, and directed by James Vanderbilt. It is based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. In Nuremberg, psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is challenged with determining if Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) is fit to stand trial at the Nuremberg trials. Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O’Brien, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt, Lydia Peckham, Richard E. Grant, and Michael Shannon have supporting roles in the film.

The film had its world premiere in the Gala Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025,^[3] where it received a four-minute standing ovation, one of TIFF’s longest standing ovations ever.^[4] It was released theatrically in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics on November 7, 2025. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for Crowe’s performance.

Plot

On May 7, 1945, the last day of World War II, Reichmarshall Hermann Göring surrenders to a group of American troops. After being informed of the arrest, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson is told about plans for an International Military Tribunal to charge the surviving top Nazi leaders with war crimes. The problem facing the Allies is how to establish proceedings without precedent and charge individuals for crimes of great magnitude. Jackson is asked to serve as the American prosecutor, which requires taking a leave of absence from the Supreme Court. He meets prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe, who represents the British team.

Douglas Kelley arrives in Germany to serve as prison psychiatrist for the Nazi leaders. He meets Sergeant Howie Triest and receives his orders from Colonel Andrus. Kelley realizes that overseeing the prisoners’ mental health would make great material for a book, which he hopes can leave a lasting impression on the world. Upon meeting Göring for the first time, Kelley surmises that the man is much more intelligent than he lets on. His hunch is confirmed when Göring recognizes English and later speaks it to him. Kelley classifies Göring as very intelligent, charismatic, and narcissistic, with a high imagination and a strong capacity for self-delusion. Kelley is most fascinated by how Göring was taken by Hitler‘s passionate speeches and ability to inspire loyalty. Göring admits to establishing concentration camps as labour camps, but denies they were intended for extermination, blaming the late Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. Göring confides to Kelley that he will somehow escape execution by the Allies. Kelley meets with the other defendants, including labor leader Robert Ley, naval commander Karl Dönitz, and propogandist Julius Streicher. After indictments are served to the defendants, Ley has a nervous breakdown and commits suicide by self-strangulation. To prevent similar acts, Colonel Andrus places a 24-hour watch on the prisoners and removes all objects deemed contraband. As the trial draws near, Kelley attempts to get through to Hitler’s former deputy Rudolf Hess, whom he believes is feigning amnesia. He persuades Göring to assist with jogging Hess’s memory, in exchange for delivering letters to Göring’s wife Emmy and daughter Edda. Kelley later visits the Göring family and develops a rapport with them. During his off-duty hours, he strikes up a friendship with Lila, a journalist for The Boston Globe.

Andrus decides that Kelley’s objectivity has become compromised and brings in psychiatrist Gustave Gilbert to provide a second opinion. Prior to the start of the Nuremberg trials, Göring plans to deliver a statement to the tribunal, which Kelley brings to Jackson’s attention. It becomes apparent to Jackson that Göring is preparing to use the trial as a platform to defend Nazism and delegitimize the Allied occupation of Germany. During the entering of pleas, the judges silence Göring’s attempts to address the court. A documentary film of Nazi concentration camps is screened, leaving Kelley and several others deeply shaken. Kelley confronts Göring in his cell afterwards, who flippantly dismisses the film’s content and suggests it was staged. Kelley learns that Emmy has been taken into custody for alleged involvement in Göring’s art theft’s, while Edda has been handed over to a nunnery. After drunkenly revealing crucial information regarding Göring’s case to Lila, Andrus dismisses him from his position and orders him to return to America, before revealing that Emmy and Edda have been released. While preparing to leave Germany, he meets with Triest, who reveals his German-Jewish heritage and the loss of his parents during the war. Guilty as to his impassivity towards Göring, Kelley returns to Nuremberg and offers Jackson all of his notes regarding Göring.

During Göring’s cross-examination, Jackson, who has not prosecuted a case in years, questions him directly. Göring gives long, drawn-out answers while denying knowledge of atrocities being committed against Jews in Europe. He claims that the Final Solution was initially meant to be a “complete solution” in emigrating the Jews out of Germany, rather than an act of wholesale extermination. Jackson’s increasing ire towards Göring prompts a stern rebuke by the judges. Maxwell Fyfe steps in to cross-examine Göring, successfully goading him into professing his continued loyalty to Hitler. The tribunal finds Göring guilty on all four counts and sentences him to death by hanging. Kelley, Jackson, and Fyfe take satisfaction in their efforts to bring the Nazi leaders to justice.

On the eve of his execution, Göring commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule. Despite this, Andrus orders the execution of the remaining Nazis to go ahead as planned, beginning with Streicher. Kelley later publishes a book regarding his experiences in Nuremberg, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, which sells poorly. Plagued by alcoholism and increasingly distraught over the possibility of another regime like Nazi Germany emerging in the future, Kelley commits suicide with a cyanide capsule in 1958. End titles reveal that Triest managed to bring his sister home to America, and Jackson’s efforts to prosecute Göring later formed the foundation for international prosecution of war crimes.

Cast

Production

In December 2023, it was announced that James Vanderbilt was set to write and direct the film, with Rami Malek, Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon starring.^[5] Additional casting with Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery and Colin Hanks was announced in January and February 2024.^[6][7]

Filming began in Budapest, Hungary in February 2024 and wrapped by May 2024.^[8][9]

Release

In June 2025, Sony Pictures Classics acquired North American and worldwide airline rights to the film and scheduled a release for it in the U.S. on November 7, 2025.^[10] The film’s early special release with a Q-and-A session with Vanderbilt and Crowe was on October 27, 2025.^[11] At the premiere in Toronto, it received a four-minute standing ovation, one of TIFF‘s longest standing ovations ever.^[12]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 115 critics’ reviews are positive. The website’s consensus reads: “Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, Nuremberg is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject.”^[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.^[14]

Writing for the Daily Beast, Nick Schrager found the film to be flawed in spite of the star actors in the film and pointed out director Vanderbilt’s flaws by stating: “Nuremberg is constructed like an old-fashioned awards-bait period piece, complete with trailer-ready lines of dialogue that put a neat-and-tidy button on scenes. There’s a mechanical quality to Vanderbilt’s plotting that negates the unexpected and enlightening”.^[15]

Accolades

See also

References

External links