Nuremberg: Depicting real-life atrocities

A PIVOTAL moment in world history is recreated by writer-director James Vanderbilt in this formulaic but nonetheless powerful docudrama focussing on the initial stages of the 1946 Nuremberg trials.

These proceedings of course saw high-ranking Nazi officials answer for their war crimes and established precedent for international tribunals in the intervening time.

These trials have been brought to the screen before, most notably Stanley Kramer’s 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg, which starred Spencer Tracy and an Oscar-winning Maximilian Schell.

This is a weighty subject for Vanderbilt to tackle and though there is nothing ground-breaking about his film, solid performances, a solemn tone and the sheer weight of the history it covers, work to his advantage.

The year is 1946 and Hitler is dead. Following the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, the hunt begins for German officials believed responsible for atrocities committed during the war. Hermann Goering (Russell Crowe), the Fuhrer’s former second-in-command, is arrested in Austria after surrendering to Allied troops.

He and other Nazi bigwigs (including Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher and Karl Donitz) are imprisoned at Nuremberg.

US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) is tasked with creating the International Military Tribunal, a court in which the Allies will level these officials with charges unprecedented in human history, including mass murder and genocide.

While Justice Jackson grapples with how to prosecute these sprawling cases, psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is appointed to oversee the mental state of the Nuremberg defendants. It will be his job to ensure the likes of Goering are fit to stand trial.

As Kelley begins his psychological assessments, he finds Goering to be intelligent and charismatic, as well as a highly manipulative narcissist.

He confidently tells the doctor he will escape the hangman’s noose and denies responsibility for the Holocaust.

As the trials are set to begin Kelley attempts to find the distinction between the man Goering proclaims himself to be and one he truly is inside. He must do that before Goering’s guilt can be determined on the stand.

Though Nuremberg is aesthetically constructed with the trappings of a prestige historical drama, it does not function best as one in terms of substance.

We have seen plenty of films focussing on the events of World War II and the Holocaust (Schindler’s List being most noteworthy) that have beaten Vanderbilt to saying all there is to say and more.

His screenplay is too safe and restrained to offer too much weighty or insightful in that regard. No, Nuremberg functions best as a psychological drama, showcasing the battle of wits between Goering and the doctor Kelley.

While the reconstruction of the trial is compelling (how could it not be?), it’s when the film focuses on the discussions between Kelley and Goering in the former’s cell that the film really comes alive.

As crafty former Reichsmarshall tries to convince the doctor of his innocence and Kelley attempts to not fall prey to these mind games, a twisted kind of friendship begins to emerge.

It makes one think that a 100 minute drama focussing on this aspect, rather than this two and a half hour epic with its less successful subplots, might have been a more effective approach.

While awards talk for the film has been muted, Crowe has been rightly praised for his portrayal of Goering.

It can be no easy task humanising one of history’s most infamous war criminals but Crowe carries it off with defiant, enigmatic swagger that is oftentimes unnerving.

It is a performance comparable with Bruno Ganz’s unforgettable portrayal of Hitler himself in 2004’s Downfall.

As the deeply flawed Kelley, Malek holds his own against Crowe. Other members of the cast do their best with some rather thinly written roles, particularly the always magnetic but often under-utilised Shannon as Roberts.

Nuremberg doesn’t achieve the prestige that it strains for but it remains highly watchable nonetheless.

RATING: ***

Matthew McCaul