Reflections on Nuremberg: Lessons on Evil

“What if we could dissect evil? I mean, what sets these men apart from all others? What enabled them to commit the crimes that they did?” Those are the questions posed in James Vanderbilt’s “Nuremberg” by Rami Malek’s character, Dr. Douglas Kelley, as he sets out to psychoanalyze Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and other captured Nazi leaders at the behest of the US Army ahead of the Nuremberg Trials. Unfortunately, despite superb writing from Vanderbilt and praiseworthy performances from Malek, Crowe, and Leo Woodall as Sergeant Howie Triest, Kelley’s interpreter, since its release, “Nuremberg”, though a box office hit for Sony Pictures Classics, received no nominations for any major awards.

Granted, “Nuremberg” is perhaps not as groundbreaking or powerful as Stanley Kramer’s 1965 epic, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” with its cast of heavyweights including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, and Marlene Dietrich, nor does it try to be. Rather than try to improve on its predecessor, it sets out to address a different fundamental question. Where “Judgment at Nuremberg” asks how a whole nation could have stood by and allowed such monumental evil to occur, the question at the core of “Nuremberg” is whether we are capable of recognizing evil.

Over the course of the film, the audience joins Dr. Kelley on his odyssey to try to identify what made Göring and his captured coconspirators distinctly capable of committing such evil as was carried out by the Nazi regime. Perhaps inevitably, Kelley discovers that there is nothing unique or incredible about Göring. Though narcissistic, Göring is shown to be an intelligent, amiable, good-humored man who slowly charms Kelley into something akin to friendship until Kelley is confronted with footage of the atrocities of the Holocaust in the Nuremberg courtroom. Following the conclusion of his work for the army, Kelley tries in vain to warn the world of his conclusions regarding evil’s ability to exist within even the most average and superficially likable individuals.

There is a sad, poetic irony in the lack of recognition given to “Nuremberg.” In the final scene, intertitles appear onscreen to inform the audience about the rest of Douglas Kelley’s life and the reception of his book, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, which detailed his findings from his sessions with Göring and other Nazi leaders. The text reads, “Douglas Kelley’s book failed. He never wrote another. He became increasingly agitated that no one would heed his warnings. In 1958, after a long struggle with depression, Kelley committed suicide.” In failing to recognize “Nuremberg” as one of the most important films of this year, we continue to dishonor Dr. Kelley’s efforts to warn humanity of the common and congenial face that evil wears.

In many ways, “Nuremberg” is the most relevant and fitting film released this year for the current moment. Not only is antisemitism once again at historically high levels, but we are confronted with a near-constant tide of unpunished wrongdoing in society. One may think it excessive to liken any of the events of the present to the level of evil carried out by the Nazis in their state-sponsored and organized slaughtering of an entire race of people. But as “Nuremberg” demonstrates, it is the accumulation of smaller evils committed by otherwise unremarkable people, so easily excused, isolated, and disregarded, that ultimately leads to the corruption of the entire soul of a nation and the total erosion of its humanity.

By disregarding the value of a film like “Nuremberg” and leaving it out of the popular film zeitgeist, we harm ourselves and our own ability to succeed where others in the past failed. This film does not provide us with a roadmap for recognizing the monsters in our midst, and it does not comfort its viewers by identifying a trait exclusive to those capable of carrying out crimes against humanity. Rather, it warns us against our own intellectual and moral arrogance, which allows us to convince ourselves that we are different, better, or incapable of supporting or tolerating such depravity.

“Nuremberg” reminds us that the devil appears, not with a sneer, but with a smile. In the final scene of the film, Malek’s Kelley yells with an almost fanatical desperation at the moderator of a radio program, insisting that the Nazis “are not unique people. There are people like the Nazis in every country in the world today … And if you think the next time it happens we’re going to recognize it because they’re wearing scary uniforms, you’re out of your damn mind.”

“Nuremberg” is now on VOD and on Netflix on March 7th, 2026.

from Roger Ebert https://ift.tt/LW9yTds