By Susan Granger
The Oscar race has officially begun with James Vanderbilt’s “Nuremberg,” a powerful psychological thriller about the 1945 International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice that indicted the Nazi high command for World War II crimes. It’s one of the year’s best films.
Based on Jack El-Hai’s non-fiction book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” (2013), the plot explores the relationship between U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and Hitler’s crafty, charismatic second-in-command Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring (Russell Crowe), commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and creator of the Gestapo (Nazis’ secret police).
While Kelley’s official mission is to ensure that the 21 Nazi prisoners are mentally fit to stand trial, his curiosity – and ambition – prompts him to delve far deeper. “If we could psychologically define evil, we could make sure something like this never happens again,” Kelley explains to his interpreter Sgt. Howard Triest (Leo Woodhall), who spoke fluent German.
That places devious Kelley in an ethical dilemma. Should he honor his patients’ privacy or reveal his findings to U.S. prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), and the British prosecutor, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe (Richard E. Grant)?
For this Tribunal, each of the four Allied nations supplied a team of prosecutors and a judge. To convict defendants, a majority of the four judges had to agree on a verdict and sentence. “If we just shoot these men, we make them martyrs,” notes Jackson. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
Tightly scripted and confidently directed by James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”), the verbal sparring between Kelley and Goering is reminiscent of the manipulative maneuvering between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs” – augmented by harrowing, horrifying concentration-camp newsreel clips, graphically illustrating the atrocities that were committed.
Michael Shannon is remarkably restrained while Russell Crowe delivers an enthralling, intense portrayal that’s both coy and chilling. And squirrely Rami Malik, still bearing an uncanny resemblance to Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” audaciously embodies Kelley’s conflicted motivations.
FYI: Previously, the most famous depiction of these trials was Stanley Kramer’s highly fictionalized “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961).
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Nuremberg” is a timely 10, playing in theaters.
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Susan Granger
Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.
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