In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man.
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Notable quotes
“The Germans, both because of their intense democracy and also because they were as a rule people of limited capital and dependent on their own labor and skill for a livelihood, were not favorable to the institution of slavery.”
— A Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas: Illustrated, vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1907), ch. 19 (p. 193)
“Unity and justice and freedom for the German fatherland! Let us all strive for this purpose, brotherly with heart and hand! Unity and justice and freedom are the pledge of happiness. Bloom in the glow of happiness! Bloom, German fatherland!”
— August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Das Lied der Deutschen (1841)
“As long as there is a wall, barbed wire and orders to shoot, there can be no talk of normality in Germany.”
“Der Satan der italienischen und englischen Dichter mag poetischer sein; aber der deutsche Satan ist satanischer; und insofern könnte man sagen, der Satan sei eine deutsche Erfindung.”
— The Satan of the Italian and English poets may be more poetic; but the German Satan is more satanic; and in this respect one could say, the Satan is a German invention.
“Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”
— Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), Ch. 22.
“We have 500,000 reservists in America who would rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany.”
Nuremberg is a 2025 American psychological thriller historical drama film written, co-produced, and directed by James Vanderbilt. Based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, the film follows U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) seeking to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials. Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O'Brien, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt, Lydia Peckham, Richard E. Grant, and Michael Shannon have supporting roles in the film.
The film had its world premiere in the Gala Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025. It was released theatrically in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics on November 7, 2025. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for Crowe's performance.
Contents
Plot
On May 7, 1945, one day before Nazi Germany surrenders to the Allies, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, Hitler's former second-in-command, surrenders with his family to U.S. forces in Austria. At the same time, Associate Justice Robert Jackson is informed of Göring's arrest, which prompts a discussion with his secretary, Elsie Douglas, about establishing an international tribunal to charge the surviving Nazi leadership with war crimes. Douglas is conservative, noting that such potential action has no legally-established international precedent; however, Jackson is enthusiastic, envisioning the tribunal as an opportunity of establishing such precedent. Initially, the U.S. is reluctant to support Jackson's plans, and favors summary executions instead; however, Jackson persists by winning the support of Pope Pius XII by leveraging his knowledge of the latter's controversial relationship with the Nazi regime.
Elsewhere, U.S. Army psychiatrist Lt Col. Douglas Kelley is summoned to Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, to evaluate the mental health of 22 Nazi leaders in Allied custody, including Göring, who have been selected for prosecution. Reporting to the warden, Col. Burton Andrus, Kelley begins his assignment with the assistance of an interpreter, Sergeant Howard Triest. Initial meetings with Göring are civil; however other prisoners, such as Robert Ley and Julius Streicher, react with contempt. Personally, Kelley appraises Göring as intelligent, yet highly narcissistic, and plans to use his notes of those interactions to write a tell-all book for personal profit.
In due course, Jackson and British barrister Sir David Maxwell Fyfe are made prosecuting counsels for the newly established International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, which in turn charges the detainees with crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy. In the lead up to the trial, Kelley and Göring interact warmly, with Göring going so far as to help Kelley examine former Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, in exchange for being allowed to write to his wife Emmy and daughter Edda. Kelley also develops a rapport with them, acting as a courier between them and Göring. In private, Kelley is approached by Jackson to report the prisoners' legal defense to him in order to shape the prosecution.
Before the trial can commence, Ley commits suicide by strangling himself in his cell, leading Andrus to summon psychologist Gustave Gilbert to provide a second opinion. At the trial's beginning, Jackson delivers a strong opening statement highlighting the need for accountability, while Göring is silenced and instead ordered to enter a plea; he and the other prisoners plead "not guilty". During adjournments, Kelley learns that Göring's family had been arrested in connection with his reported art thefts and requests Andrus to intervene; Göring later learns of the development from Gilbert.
When the trial recommences, the prosecution shows footage of the regime's atrocities committed inside its concentration camps, causing an upset Kelley to confront Göring, who had previously denied any knowledge of such actions. Göring stands by the claims of his unawareness, and resorts to denying the atrocities or comparing them with alleged crimes committed by the Allies. Dismayed, Kelley proceeds to get drunk and unwittingly reveals his private discussions with Göring to Lila, a journalist with The Boston Globe, who subsequently publishes the information. Infuriated, Andrus relieves Kelley and orders him out, but not before revealing that he was able to get Emmy and Edda released. While leaving, Triest reveals to Kelley that he is a German-born Jew, and that while his younger sister escaped to Switzerland, his parents were murdered by the Nazis in 1942.
Triest warns that the regime's cruelty was unchallenged because of a general impassivity towards evil, which compels Kelley to stay and instead submit all of his private notes on Göring to Jackson and Fyfe, predicting that Göring plans to use the trial to defend the regime's conduct. As Kelley predicted, Göring evades Jackson's cross-examination, and proceeds to declare that his decree of the Final Solution was actually intended as a complete solution focused on the emigration of Germany's Jews rather than their extermination. In turn, Jackson's ire towards Göring earns him a stern rebuke by the tribunal, which prompts Fyfe to take over. Fyfe exploits Göring's vanity and goads him into overtly admitting his continued loyalty to Hitler, which finally corners him. At the trial's conclusion, Göring is sentenced to death by hanging.
Kelley pays Göring a final visit before leaving, where he comes to terms with Göring's true nature. On October 15, 1946, the night before his scheduled execution, Göring commits suicide by ingesting cyanide, much to Andrus's anger. The remaining executions proceed as scheduled, with Streicher suffering a nervous breakdown. Triest, who had intended to reveal his Jewish heritage to Streicher before his execution, instead chooses to gently assist him to the gallows. The execution goes poorly, with Streicher having to be weighed down on the noose to die.
Kelley, traumatized by his experiences at Nuremberg, returns to the U.S. and publishes his tell-all, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, which he has trouble promoting. The film's intertitles reveal that Kelley succumbed to alcoholism and spent the rest of his life in vain warning about the possibility of a future regime similar to the Nazis, before committing suicide in 1958 by ingesting cyanide. Triest managed to reunite with his sister; while Jackson's prosecutorial efforts at Nuremberg laid the foundation for international prosecution of war crimes.
Production
In December 2023, it was announced that James Vanderbilt was set to write and direct the film, with Rami Malek, Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon starring. Additional casting with Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery and Colin Hanks was announced in January and February 2024.
Filming began in Budapest, Hungary in February 2024 and wrapped by May 2024.
Release
In June 2025, Sony Pictures Classics acquired North American and worldwide airline rights to the film and scheduled a release for it in the U.S. on November 7, 2025. The film's early special release with a Q-and-A session with Vanderbilt and Crowe was on October 27, 2025. At the premiere in Toronto, it received a four-minute standing ovation, one of TIFF's longest standing ovations ever.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 202 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, Nuremberg is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "It's a solid film of [a] kind that used to be more common: an earnest, unpretentious Oscar Movie that wants to be seen by everyone, and consequently doesn't try to be too complex or arty. It wants to educate and inspire as well as entertain, and isn't shy about that ambition."
Writing for The Daily Beast, Nick Schrager found the film to be flawed in spite of the star actors in the film, and critiqued Vanderbilt's direction by stating, "Nuremberg is constructed like an old-fashioned awards-bait period piece, complete with trailer-ready lines of dialogue that put a neat-and-tidy button on scenes. There's a mechanical quality to Vanderbilt's plotting that negates the unexpected and enlightening."
In a review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw rated the film two out of five stars, noting: "All of these actors do their best, but the figure of Kelley himself is a ridiculous cartoon." He cited Rami Malek's performance as "deeply silly." Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "well-intentioned and elucidating despite some missteps."
Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.
Cast & crew political lean — 3 of 15 researched: 2 left · 0 center · 0 right · 1 no public record. Based only on cited public statements, endorsements, and documented donations.
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