NUREMBERG

Review by Victoria Alexander

Pure cinematic brilliance. Crowe mesmerizes and creates a devastating, fully committed, shocking character. The best film and performance of the decade. Makes OPPENHEIMER look like a petty squabble among ego-driven company men.

Russell Crowe powerfully delivers the magnetic character of Adolf Hitler’s fanatically devoted Nazi, Hermann Göring. Crowe delivers the multi-faceted enigma of one of Hitler’s most influential and powerful figures of the Nazi Party, which included notorious men Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Karl Dönitz, Walter Funk, and Albert Speer.

I am reading the autobiography of Rudolph Höss, the Commandant of Auschwitz.

By all historical accounts, Göring, who held the position of Supreme Commander of the Air Force, was charismatic, fascinating, witty, charming, and highly intelligent. He spoke excellent English and was extravagant in his behavior and dress, and was firmly unrepentant as a Nazi. With the invasion of Poland, the opening action of World War II in 1939, Hitler designated Göring, "just in case", as his successor as Führer of all Germany.

Göring understood the quote widely attributed to Winston Churchill: "History is written by the victors."

Churchill is also attributed with delivering one of my favorite quotes. As First Lord of the Admiralty in 1913, he was overheard responding to criticism that he was impugning naval traditions. Churchill, addressing the aforesaid naval tradition, said: "Don't talk to me about Naval Tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash."

Finally outlawed in 1806, flogging as a general practice was not suspended in peacetime until 1881. Even now, it is still technically not completely removed from possible punishments.

No word on the naval tradition of sodomy.

With World War II coming to an end, the Nazi hierarchy who could, fled. Not Göring. He surrendered with the pageantry of his Nazi station. And here is where NUREMBERG takes off. Along with other captured Nazi officers, Göring was the undisputed star prisoner. As second only to Hitler, he was the architect of the Nazi agenda, the leading war aggressor, director of slave labor, and creator of the horrific program against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad. All of these crimes Göring proudly admitted to.

However, Göring firmly denied being the architect of the Final Solution. He never visited a death camp and did not know what happened to the millions of people the Nazi government "relocated."

The U.S. Supreme Court chose prosecutor Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) to lead the first international trial of Germany’s war criminals. Along with infamous serial killers’ autographs and paintings while in prison (and O.J. Simpson signed sports memorabilia while awaiting trial for murder), Göring befriended and gifted his jailers with personal items. (One young guard was gifted by Göring his gold watch!)

U.S. Army colonel and Nuremberg prison commandant Burton Andrus (John Slattery) knew Jackson was no match for Göring. Andrus enlists American Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) to psychologically profile the war criminals. Most significantly, Kelley was to find a way to help Jackson question Göring when he takes the stand in his own defense. The prosecution team feared Göring would use his testimony to expound Nazi ideology.

Jackson needs help figuring out how to question Göring. How will Kelley get Göring to reveal how he will not only prepare his defense but how he will manipulate the under-prepared prosecutor?

Kelley knows that if Göring is the first domino to fall, the other 21 defendants will follow.

Göring is no fool. He will help Jackson if Kelley will give him what he wants in return.

And here is where, in my opinion, either the 2013 book THE NAZI AND THE PSYCHIATRIST by Jack El-Hai, which director and screenwriter James Vanderbilt used "as an inspiration", or recorded history, or a plot device, NUREMBERG takes an unrealistic misstep.

(Would you believe it if Dr. Josef Mengele had been caught in South America, put on trial, found guilty, and sobbed and begged for the tribunal’s mercy, claiming he was just following orders?)

It is not a spoiler that Göring was found guilty and sentenced to hang. Göring was outraged. He demanded an officer’s death by firing squad but was denied this "honorable" soldier’s death. Instead, he cleverly took his own life. No one knows how he obtained the poison (though a young guard finally confessed five decades later to "unknowingly" giving Göring the poison in a fountain pen given to him by a German girl who had flirted with him).

How does Kelley get the sadistic, savage criminal who proudly orchestrated the deaths of millions to reveal his prepared testimony? Knowing this would allow Jackson to trap him into exposing his arrogance and fierce belief in his Third Reich craftsmanship.

What about psychiatrist-patient confidentiality? Kelley is well aware that psychiatrist-patient confidentiality is a legal and ethical principle. Kelley gives his book of notes from his many meetings with Göring to Jackson.

What is the weakness of a man like Göring? The man shown here reveals he is really a pathetic, emotionally frail husband and father.

Yet Göring was not only a German war hero but Hitler’s second in command. He had used cunning and ruthlessness to fight his way into the Führer’s intimate inner circle. Just look at the men Hitler relied on. Would Göring give up his lifelong principles and his acceptance as a Nazi martyr to throw it all away if Kelley brought him a letter from his wife?

Really? Göring’s wife and daughter were with him when he surrendered.

Let us not ignore that another one of Hitler’s inner circle, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, and his wife Magda decided to end their lives and those of their six children in the Führerbunker. They did not want their children to grow up in a world without National Socialism.

The entire film is astonishing. Every actor is at their strongest. Even Leo Woodall as Sgt. Howie Triest, who seemingly coasts along until he has a scene that shows his dramatic skill.

Every actor, even the minor characters, gives strong, memorable performances.

I have not read THE NAZI AND THE PSYCHIATRIST on how Göring, who was watched 24 hours a day by a guard, managed to die on his own terms.

Shockingly, what happened to Kelley later in life, suicide by the same poison Göring used, raises a rather troubling question: what really happened that was lost to the history written by the victors?

"The ALL is Mind; The Universe is Mental."

Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Critic.

For a complete list of Victoria Alexander's movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes go to:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/critics/victoria-alexander/movies

Contributing to:FilmsInReview: http://www.filmsinreview.com

Member of Las Vegas Film Critics Society

Personal email:  victoria.alexander.lv@gmail.com