Is Russell Crowe’s chilling Göring the scariest villain of the year? Inside Nuremberg’s timely warning

In the shadowed, crumbling remains of post-war Germany, a different kind of battle was waged not with tanks and rifles, but with words and wills. The Nuremberg trials were a monumental effort to impose order upon chaos, to answer unspeakable atrocities with the measured gavel of justice. But within the prison walls, a quieter, more psychologically fraught conflict was unfolding, one that forms the pulsing heart of James Vanderbilt’s gripping new historical drama, Nuremberg.

The film, which has stormed the box office with a formidable $4.15 million opening, does more than just recount the legal proceedings. It plunges us into the intense, claustrophobic world of U.S. Army psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelley, played with nervous intensity by Rami Malek. His mission: to plumb the minds of the 22 highest-ranking Nazi officials in captivity, including the most formidable prize, Hermann Göring, brought to life with terrifying charisma by Russell Crowe.

The Seduction of a Psychopath

Nuremberg masterfully dismantles the cartoonish image of a Nazi as a frothing, obvious monster. Instead, we meet Göring as he was: witty, egotistical, and disarmingly charming. He is a man who quotes poetry, reminisces about his family, and holds court in his cell as if it were a Berlin salon. Crowe’s performance is a revelation, capturing the bloated, yet still magnetic, figure who was once Hitler’s second-in-command.

The core of the film becomes a dangerous dance between Kelley and Göring. It’s a real-life Silence of the Lambs dynamic, where the hunter must understand his prey so intimately that he risks being seduced by his logic. Kelley’s goal is to determine if Göring is fit to stand trial, but his personal quest becomes far more profound: to answer the question, “How could you do it?”

The answer he uncovers is the film’s most chilling thesis. It wasn’t a unique German sickness or a specific madness that enabled the Holocaust. It was a terrifyingly human cocktail of ambition, nationalism, and a ruthless comfort with the suffering of others. As Göring smugly tells Kelley, “Hitler made us feel German again,” a line that echoes with unsettling relevance in any era.

A Cinematic Collision of Styles

Vanderbilt, whose script for Zodiac similarly explored obsession, deliberately crafts a “classical” historical thriller. This approach stands in stark contrast to the avant-garde minimalism of recent Holocaust films like the Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest. Where that film implied horror through sound and absence, Nuremberg confronts it directly.

In one of the film’s most harrowing sequences, Vanderbilt recreates the moment when prosecutors presented documentary footage of the liberated concentration camps in the courtroom. The scene was shot with a real projector and 300 extras, and the director famously asked his cast, including a profoundly uncomfortable Michael Shannon as Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, not to watch the footage beforehand. The result is a wave of raw, genuine horror that washes over the screen, forcing the audience, and the actors, to bear witness in a way that is anything but entertaining.

A Mirror Held to the Modern World

The power of Nuremberg lies not just in its historical accuracy but in its urgent, uncomfortable resonance. The film refuses to let the Nazis remain safely in the past, locked away as historical aberrations. It argues that the seeds of such atrocity exist everywhere, waiting for the right conditions to flourish.

Malek, who grappled with playing a Bond villain in No Time to Die, found this to be the film’s central, haunting message. “It must have been quite jarring for [Kelley] to know that this could happen at any time,” Malek reflects. “We see now that atrocity is able to rise furiously and vigorously in mere moments.”

Shannon is even more direct, viewing the film as “mandatory viewing” for a modern America he describes as “a nightmare.” He warns of the enduring danger of charismatic, power-hungry leaders, stating, “We are suckers for this charm. It’s going to be our downfall, it seems.”

A Box Office Testament to Timeliness

The strong opening weekend for Nuremberg, playing widely in both arthouses and multiplexes across red and blue states, suggests a public hunger for this difficult reflection. In a crowded marketplace, audiences chose to engage with this sobering chapter of history, proving that a well-crafted “theatrical experience” about weighty themes can still draw a crowd.

Nuremberg is more than a history lesson; it is a cautionary tale. It forces us to look directly at the face of evil and recognize, to our horror, that it can smile back, tell a joke, and in doing so, reveal the terrifyingly human capacity for darkness that resides within us all.

FAQ: The Film ‘Nuremberg’

Q1: What is the new movie Nuremberg about?
The film focuses on the psychological battle between U.S. Army psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) during the historic Nuremberg trials after World War II.

Q2: Is Nuremberg based on a true story?
Yes. The film is based on historical events and draws from the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, detailing the real interactions between Dr. Kelley and the Nazi leadership.

Q3: How does Russell Crowe portray Hermann Göring?
Crowe plays Göring not as a one-dimensional monster, but as a charismatic, intelligent, and manipulative figure, highlighting the banality and seductive danger of evil.

Q4: How is this film different from The Zone of Interest?
While both deal with the Holocaust, The Zone of Interest implies horror through sound and off-screen events. Nuremberg is a more classical historical thriller that directly confronts the events of the trials, including showing graphic documentary footage.

Q5: Why are critics saying Nuremberg is relevant today?
The film explores how ordinary people can be seduced by nationalist rhetoric and power, with dialogue and themes that many viewers find directly resonant with contemporary political climates around the world.