Nuremberg Parent Guide

It’s the end of World War II and the victorious Allies face a perplexing question: what should they do with the surviving leaders of the Nazi regime? Despite pressure for summary executions, US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) is convinced that only a trial can publicize the monstrous evils of the Nazi regime, squash support for a potential resurgence of Nazism in Germany, and inoculate the rest of the world against future war crimes. To everyone’s surprise, allied governments agree, and Justice Jackson finds himself in Nuremberg, working with a multinational team of prosecutors to bring Nazi leaders to trial.

Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is a small cog in the vast machinery of military justice. The American psychiatrist is assigned to a secret prison which holds high value Nazi prisoners, and his job is to prevent suicides and ensure the prisoners are fit to stand trial.

Of the first 22 men indicted to stand trial, the most prominent is Hermann Göring, Reichsmarschall of Germany, head of the Luftwaffe (Air Force), and Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command. Göring (played by Russell Crowe), is a complex figure: narcissistic, grandiloquent, supremely confident, and convinced he will escape the hangman’s noose. Kelley is fascinated by Göring and believes that if he can understand his patient/prisoner, he might be able to “dissect evil” and figure out how to prevent future atrocities. Thus begins the relationship between the two men as sparring partners, borderline friends, and antagonists.

Films like Nuremberg are the reason I still go to the movies, despite the relentless tide of mediocre films that fill my schedule. This is a brilliant production, with some of the best screenwriting I’ve enjoyed in a long time. The dialogue is tight, tense, and convincing, and is lightened with just enough dark humor to remind us of the humanity of the people involved. This is a film that will keep you at the edge of your seat, which is no small achievement in a historical movie where we all know the outcome.

Nuremberg also benefits from superb acting, with a nuanced performance by Rami Malek who struggles both with his feelings towards Göring and with the tension between his obligations as a doctor to put his patient’s confidentiality and needs first and his obligations as a soldier to share information with his superior officers. But the star of this show is Russell Crowe, who turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as Göring. He fully inhabits this contradictory man: proud, vain, devoted to his family, lacking in conscience, brilliantly manipulative, and also vulnerable. We all know that people can be monsters, but Crowe makes us ask if monsters can also be people.

Despite Crowe’s ability to humanize a Nazi, there is no whitewashing of the Holocaust in Nuremberg. The trial features a black and white movie depicting concentration camps, and the repeated images of starved corpses and crematoria ovens triggered audible sobs from the woman sitting behind me. (Parents and teachers can take note that none of this film’s imagery is more graphic than any documentary on the topic). There are no other gruesome images, but the bleak horrors of the time are impossible to ignore, and the movie’s PG-13 rating is a good guide as to who should watch the film. Other negative content is minor – 18 profanities, some brief smoking and drinking (including a scene of intoxication) – making this a good choice for anyone interested in discussing the big questions this movie examines. The discussion will certainly be painful, but that’s the point: anything else misses the lessons of history.

About author

Kirsten Hawkes

Kirsten Hawkes has a BA in Political Science and English and has worked in international development and medical education and marketing. Kirsten enjoys reading, watching movies, and debating politics with her husband and sometimes unwilling children.