In cinemas; Cert 15A
Nuremberg Trailer
On its 80th anniversary, this effective drama about the titular Nazi trials zeroes-in on the tribunal’s big prize – Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Göring – and the threat of a Pyrrhic victory looming over the whole thing.
An imperious Russell Crowe plays the slippery, charming Reichsmarschall apprehended with his wife and daughter. Assigned to mentally assess him ahead of cross-examination is army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), who quickly realises he’s met his match.
Detained in his cell, Göring maintains an indomitable heft, and Kelley must work hard to out-flank him. Meanwhile, Michael Shannon’s Supreme Court Justice weighs up how to expose Göring’s deceit about knowledge of the camps without granting him a platform to stand defiant.
A writer on Scream and Zodiac, James Vanderbilt helms a Hollywood take on a courtroom saga periodically returned to in film and TV. Malek, Shannon, and co-star Richard E. Grant do great work, but Crowe is the main event.
The axis on which the whole film turns is when the court is shown John Ford’s real footage from the camps, a horror no movie could ever simulate.
Four stars