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The first reviews of a film focusing on the Nuremberg trials has already seen critics predict Russell Crowe could be in line for his next Oscar.
At the weekend, the historical drama Nuremberg premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it received a four-minute standing ovation – a rarity for that event.
The upcoming release stars Russell, 61, as Hermann Göring, who was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party.
After the war, he was eventually convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946.
Although he requested to be executed by firing squad, he was sentenced to death by hanging. But the night before his planned execution, he committed suicide by ingesting cyanide.
Based on the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, Nuremberg is inspired by the true story of the trials held by the Allies against the defeated Nazi regime.
The film follows American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), who is tasked with determining whether Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes and then finds himself in a ‘complex battle of wits’ with Göring, Hitler’s right-hand man.
It’s also been teased as a ‘cat-and-mouse thriller set in the shadow of the crimes that have haunted global history for decades to come’.
What have critics said about Nuremberg?
Following early screenings, reviews of James Vanderbilt’s film have been glowing, specifically praising Russell’s performance.
‘Nuremberg may be rooted in history, but it’s also quite possibly one of the season’s most timely and awards-worthy films…it’s a riveting psychological thriller that could be a formidable player across multiple Oscar categories,’ Variety wrote.
‘At the heart is Russell Crowe‘s towering turn as Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second-in-command. The Oscar winner hasn’t delivered work this commanding since Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man in 2005. Here, Crowe captures the paradox of Göring’s charisma and monstrosity, portraying a man capable of seducing the room even as his crimes repulse the world.
‘Crowe’s German dialogue, which he learned specifically for the role, adds a layer of authenticity, with his cat-and-mouse exchanges with Rami Malek’s Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley crackling with intensity. It’s the kind of transformative, fully inhabited performance that could catapult him back into the thick of a very competitive best actor race.’
Meanwhile The Hollywood Reporter said the film ‘couldn’t have arrived at a more consequential time’.
Writing of the lead: ‘In Crowe’s capable hands, there isn’t a word of dialogue that doesn’t carry its own carefully measured weight.
‘Crowe and Malek uniformly deliver what are among their best performances,’ it added.
Meanwhile Deadline wrote: ‘Dominating the film are the stunning performances of Crowe, truly immersing himself in one of his best, if most difficult, roles as the duplicitous Goring, and Malek, whose Kelley is the unsung hero of it all even though ultimately it took the greatest toll on his own life in the years after.’
The Wrap also said Russell delivered a ‘terrifying performance in a larger-than-life role like those that defined the early part of his career’.
Since his break-out role in the Australian film Romper Stomper in 1992, Russell has gone on to star in L.A. Confidential, The Insider and Gladiator, which earnt him an Academy Award for best actor in 2000.
He’s since starred in A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Cinderella Man, with his films grossing over $5.3billion (£3.9billion) worldwide.
Who else stars in Nuremberg?
The cast of the film also includes Michael Shannon as lawyer and politician Robert H. Jackson, Richard E. Grant as prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe and Leo Woodall as translator Howie Triest.
Other real-life figures portrayed in the film include Army officer Burton C. Andrus, interrogator John Amen, psychologist Gustave Gilbert and Göring’s wife Emmy.
What else do we know about the movie?
The Nuremberg trials were held between 1939 and 1945 and saw Nazi officials held to account by the Allies.
The purpose went beyond simply conflicting the defendants, but also to establish irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes – which left 11 million Jews and other groups starved and murdered.
Vanderbilt, who spent 13 years working on Nuremberg, has said his film works to provide ‘an exploration of what is the nature of evil’.
‘It’s relevant certainly now, but it isn’t a history lesson. It’s a thriller. The first international tribunal ever organized, the first-time film footage was used as evidence to show the world what this regime perpetrated. And the challenge was to put your personal feelings aside and try these men impartially, to allow the world to see what they had done,’ he added.
Who was Hermann Göring?
After Adolf Hitler’s death by suicide in April 1945, Göring became the highest-ranking Third Reich leader.
A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, he was an early member of the Nazi party and was responsible for establishing the Gestapo after being appointed as a minister in Hitler’s government in 1933.
He was eventually given the role of mobilising all sectors of the economy for war, which saw several government agencies come under his control.
However, after being told of Hitler’s intention to commit suicide and requesting to assume leadership, his actions were deemed an act of treason by Hitler, who removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party and ordered his arrest.
What happened during his trial at Nuremberg?
Following the war, his trial at Nuremberg saw him face charges including waging a war of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
He pleaded not guilty, with the trial lasting 218 days before he was found guilty.
The judgment stated that he was ‘the leading war aggressor, both as political and as military leader; he was the director of the slave labour programme and the creator of the oppressive programme against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad’.
‘All of these crimes he has frankly admitted. His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record discloses no excuses for this man.’
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