WWII movies fall into two categories, those that following tradition and those that chart new territory.  Those that opt for the former envelop you in their warm, cozy familiarity with the genre, like your favorite quilt.  They don’t challenge you, but they’re entertaining.  WWII Movies that eschew tradition in favor of bold and daring choices are more admired than loved.  They’re the quilts you receive with a polite “thanks” that currently reside in the dark recesses of your closet.  Nuremberg is solidly in line with the first approach, a direct descendant of the WWII movie from the Forties or Fifties.

The attention-grabbing opening scene feels like an outtake from an Indiana Jones movie.  At an Austrian border crossing, a US soldier pisses on a Nazi swastika while refugees walk past slowly and silently.  A fancy car driving in the opposite direction is stopped at gunpoint by troops.  The driver wants to signal that they are surrendering, but his handkerchief is red.  A military man in the back seat tears off a section of the dress from the woman next to him and hands it over.  That’s a very wise move, because the soldiers would have fired the instant they saw red.

The military man exits the car with his hands up and announces that he’s Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe).  The soldiers are gobsmacked.  Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second in command, is standing right in front of us and surrendering?  The fact that he’s still alive is equally surprising.  Adoph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had previously committed suicide, and most probably assumed that Göring had done the same.  Göring, however, is highly intelligent and knows that the best chance for the survival of himself and his family is to surrender to the Americans.

Göring is correct.  The Americans don’t execute him on the spot like the Russians would have.  Instead, they house him in an abandoned castle in Luxembourg with other recently captured Nazi officials.  Back in the US, word of Göring’s capture reaches Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), who wants to put Göring and his compatriots on trial for war crimes.  The trials would be an opportunity to show the world who the Nazis really are and why they deserve to be executed.  Elsie Douglas (Wrenn Schmidt), Jackson’s secretary, reminds him that there is no existing case law to draw upon and no formal proceedings have ever been held of this nature.  Then there is the very real risk that the judgments could spare the lives of the defendants.  This doesn’t deter Jackson, who sees trying the Nazis as a moral imperative.

While the decision on whether to try the Nazis is debated, we meet US Army psychiatrist Douglass Kelley (Rami Malek) on a train en route to Luxembourg.  He uses magic as a way to break the ice, but Lila (Lydia Peckham), a beautiful young woman sitting opposite him, doesn’t want to “pick a card, any card”.  So he cleverly has her perform the trick instead and is rewarded with a smile when the trick works.  Unfortunately, he’s unable to pursue things further because he’s reached his destination.

Kelley is met by Sgt. Howie Triest (Leo Woodall), a translator who sports a Detroit Tigers baseball cap.  Triest drives Kelley to the Palace Hotel, where other high-ranking Germans are being held until a decision is made on the trials.  The commander of the makeshift prisoner-of-war facility is Colonel Andrus (John Slattery) who informs Kelley (and the audience) who is currently in residence via a splashy montage.  Kelley insists upon meeting Göring immediately and gives a physical examination.  In addition to magic tricks, Kelley knows how to trigger a reaction from people, and discerns that Göring understands English.  He’s been pretending he can’t for months to have an advantage over his captors.

Back in the US, Jackson receives pushback from members of congress and the President over trying the Nazis.  They would rather hang the lot than risk giving the Nazis a platform for their propaganda.  Incredibly, Jackson has to convince the Pope to weigh in as a last resort.  Turns out that you can strong-arm anyone, even the head of the Catholic Church, provided you have the cajones to do so.  With approval for the trials now in hand, Jackson and Douglas meet with British prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe (Richard E Grant) to formulate a strategy.  They need to prove that Göring had to know what was going on at the concentration camps, but doing that will be challenging because Göring won’t freely admit that in open court.

With the start of the trials looming, Kelley is responsible for the mental well-being of the Nazis.  He must ensure that Göring and the rest don’t kill themselves before the trials, which would be disastrous.  Kelley, however, doesn’t believe Göring would do that, because the specter of a trial has only made him more confident.  When a prisoner successfully hangs himself, Andrus brings in psychologist Dr. Gustave Gilbert (Colin Hanks) for a second opinion.  Like Kelley, Gilbert also sees writing a book as a way to profit from the experience, but is clueless and easily manipulated by the Nazis.

As the trials grow nearer, Göring and Kelley have become friends.  Kelly has ingratiated himself with his patient by exchanging letters between Göring and his family.  When Kelley presses Göring on the concentration camps, however, Göring insists he had no knowledge of what was happening there, insisting that Reinhard Heydrich, the commander of the SS, was solely responsible for the atrocities.  Kelley accepts Göring’s explanation because he believes he’s earned Göring’s trust.  But when Kelley is caught in a lie, Göring reveals he’s been playing him from the beginning.  Realizing that Göring’s boast about escaping the hangman’s noose might come true, Kelley must put aside his self-interest and help Jackson’s prosecution before they suffer an ignominious defeat before the entire world.

Recommendation

Like the best WWII movies, Nuremberg is anchored by standout performances in the leading roles.  In one corner is Rami Malek playing the starstruck good guy who’s overconfident and a bit strange.  In the opposite corner sits a sweaty Russell Crowe in corpulent bad guy mode.  (I hope prosthetics were used to make him look so extremely doughy.)  Although the two have entirely different acting styles, the pairing works surprisingly well for two reasons.  First, it encapsulates one of the movie’s central themes, that crafty individuals can come from all walks of life.  Second, the friction generated by their characters wrestling over who’s the smartest guy in the room is fascinating to watch.

Where Nuremberg separates itself from other WWII movies is the connection it makes to our current day political climate, where fascism is fashionable again.  Regardless of whether the film’s powerful concluding scene actually happened, it’s a rare moment of insight for a genre that typically honors the past but rarely acknowledges how things have turned out since.  It’s a riveting “past is prologue” moment, and I wished the film had devoted more time to that insight rather than saving it for the closing minutes.

Period pieces set during WWII are required to have a notable supporting cast, and this one is no exception.  Michael Shannon is terrific in his second historically-based role this year, the other being Netflix’s Death By Lightning.  With his intensity and raspy voice, Shannon has become a go-to actor for portraying larger-than-life men.  Richard E. Grant can play the highly-educated bureaucrat in his sleep, but he’s very good at it and when the time comes for him to shine he nails it.  John Slattery is in Mad Men mode, barking out orders in a way that’s too snarky for the material.  Leo Woodall gives the film a critical emotional punch during its last lap.

Although the roles for the three women in the cast are thin, they make the most of their limited screen time.  Lydia Peckham evokes old Hollywood glamour as a devious reporter, albeit with an indecipherable accent.  Wrenn Schmidt is an intelligent and honest sounding board for Shannon’s character.  Finally, Lotte Verbeek is unexpectedly sweet as Göring’s wife, proving that even monsters have a better half.

Writer-director James Vanderbilt’s work here is serviceable for what is primarily a character-driven story.  The film is limited to three interior sets, and the exterior landscapes are conspicuously CGI rendered.  (Think HBO’s The Gilded Age.)  I give Vanderbilt credit for not giving away the movie’s highlight as an opening hook.  He also doesn’t shy away from including the same evidence in his film that was so damaging to the Nazis on trial.  In an era where Holocaust deniers have a huge following, reminders like these are increasingly necessary.

Nuremberg brings a little-known WWII story to life in this crowd-pleasing genre piece.  Oscar winners Rami Malek and Russell Crowe deliver big time performances that play to their strengths.   Although the film is traditional in every respect, it speaks to our present with surprising resonance.  Recommended.

Analysis

Even though Nuremberg was released in 2025, it contains all of the hallmarks of WWII films made during Hollywood’s golden age.  For example:

The leading performances are from two actors who know how to carry a movie.  Russell Crowe is one of the best scene-stealing actors working today.  He knows how to use his blustery voice and physical presence to dominate every other actor sharing a scene with him.  Rami Malek is a master at drawing attention to himself through his singular acting style.  There’s little about Malek that’s typical for a leading man, from his appearance to his halting speech patterns to his insect-like movements.  (I’m convinced he’s Peter Lorre reincarnated.)  Together, Crowe and Malek are showy actors who can hold our attention while we await whatever crazy thing they do next.

Aside from the inclusion of some very graphic imagery and one hanging, the movie has nothing that would offend anyone in the audience.  There’s a minimum of swear words, no nudity and no sex scenes.  Of the two deaths that happen over the course of the movie, one occurs off screen while the other, a hanging, is framed to minimize its shock value.

The movie only has the tiniest hints of sexuality.  The affair between Kelley and reporter Lila doesn’t feature a kiss or even a warm embrace.  What happens between them is left entirely to the imagination.

The score provides emotional cues for nearly every scene.  The only scenes without a musical accompaniment are the courtroom scenes and the hanging.

Every line of dialog has been polished for maximum effect.  There are no throw-away lines in this movie.

Recent WWII movies that follow the traditional recipe above include Midway (2019), Greyhound (2020) and Operation Mincemeat (2021).  If you enjoyed those movies, you’ll enjoy Nuremberg as well.

Breaking the mold

Unlike nearly every other genre, WWII movies remain trapped in amber.  For example, when we see a Western, we don’t expect them to reproduce My Darling Clementine or A Fistful of Dollars.  Horror movies today have moved far beyond Psycho and the Universal monsters.  Science fiction films no longer focus on flying saucers.  WWII movies, however, typically follow an unwritten rule that states they must utilize the same formula from almost eighty years ago.  My suspicion is that this is done so that each new movie in the genre will appeal to the aging segment of the audience that grew up watching them.

Recent WWII movies that attempted to do something bold and daring within the genre haven’t had the same emotional impact on me that the traditional ones do.

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017) fares the best because its shifting time narrative structure only disguises how traditional the movie actually is.

Steve McQueen’s Blitz (2014) infuses his traditional plotting with a seething rage over the persistent racist attitudes during wartime.  While I understood what McQueen was trying to say, his approach overwhelmed the sympathy he tries to create for his characters.

Joe Wright’s Atonement (2007) and Neil Jordan’s The End of the Affair (1999) bring some much-needed carnality to the genre, but get side-tracked by their cleverness.

In my view, traditional WWII movies ultimately show good triumphing over evil, and as a result are better received by audiences than non-traditional films that don’t.  A WWII movie that paints outside the lines still must deliver the goods.

An interesting parallel

If I squint enough, Malek and Crowe perform a duet similar to Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in another post-WWII drama, The Third Man (1949).

Like Joseph Cotton’s Holly Martins, Malek’s Dr. Kelley is an assured and moderately accomplished man thrust into an unfamiliar European landscape.  While in search of the truth about his charming friend, Kelley is distracted by a pretty and worldly brunette who harbors a secret agenda.  Kelley’s trust in Göring is shattered after he watches horrifying film footage that confirms his crimes.

Crowe’s Göring is a physically imposing, charming and thoroughly immoral man like Welles’ Harry Lime.  In an effort to escape punishment, Göring initially convinces his friend that he isn’t the evil person others have characterized him as being, only to be thoroughly disproved by hard evidence.

In the end, Kelley and Martin leave Europe with their confidence broken and their presumptive friends dead.  All that’s missing from Nuremberg is a cat and zither music.