The long internet-tional nightmare is over; I have finally journeyed back into a darkened theatre.  For the first time in almost three months I have actually seen a theatrical movie.  It’s the longest drought I have endured since back problems and surgery put me out of commission for a while back in 1995.  The sad part is that I have no good reason this time to have avoided my favorite activity.  At least I picked a good one to mark my return.

James Vanderbilt’s chronicle of the international effort to bring Nazi officers to justice following the end of World War II is brilliantly detailed and nuanced.  Led by an American Supreme Court justice (Michael Shannon), four high-ranking captured German officers, top lined by Herman Göring (Russell Crowe), are set to be tried for war crimes on the international stage — the first time in modern history.  A psychologist (Rami Malek) is assigned to keep the men alive for the duration and to worm secrets out of them, if possible, for their successful prosecution.

One might remember Stanley Kramer’s splendid but preachy 1961 version of these events, Judgment at Nuremberg.  This film is far more narrowly focused, with just a handful of primary characters, yet each one is remarkably delineated and enacted.  While the historical facts are followed and succinctly covered, the narrative allows for more thoughtfulness and interpretation that I expected.  Everyone is human, indeed (as Göring insists); mistakes are made by everyone involved, yet the responsibility to do the right thing now is shared by all involved.  And all this sturm und drang is delivered with strong cinematic style, not flashily but very effectively.  It is probable that this film and its performers will score heavily in the upcoming awards season; Crowe and Malik especially are top notch; this is the best film I have seen this year.

As a legal thriller it is a little bit less effective, for it depends upon Göring admitting his complicity in the Nazi atrocities directly, much like Jack Nicholson’s character being coerced to incriminate himself in A Few Good Men.  Those legal scenes drag a little bit, too, and there is a long sequence that is difficult to watch of actual footage of what was found when the Americans liberated the various concentration camps.  That sequence is necessary to the story but it is absolutely gruesome.  Nuremberg is a serious film about a deadly serious subject, thankfully given a studied and complex treatment.  It’s a nearly great movie.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  8 November 2025.