Audience Member
A heavy subject treated with care and respect. A bit slow and very information filled, besides some typical american film drama cliches that I didn't care for. But overall, a good watch.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An excellent recounting of the development of the international court system and the prosecution of the heads of the Nazi party in Germany after WWII. The display of the atrocities committed and the steps taken by the world powers to establish a more solid way for countries to persecute people who lack humanity.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"I shouldn't tell you this... but Hitler did not approve of hunting. He felt that killing animals was... immoral. He was a vegetarian."
Nuremberg is actually a 2 part miniseries which aired on TNT in 2000, each part is 90 minutes. It tells the story of the Trial of the Major War Criminals in Nuremberg in the wake of World War 2 and follows 2 sets of characters, Allies' legal team and the... defendants, Hermann Göring chief among them.
This is a near-perfect cinematic rendition of one of the last battles of World War 2, as it were where the tyrants who tried to dominate the globe are brought to justice.
Obviously this is similar to the masterful Stanley Kramer film Judgement at Nuremberg but unlike that film which fictionalized the events of the trial and changed the names of the people involved, Nuremberg uses the real historical figures.
An excellent cast led by Alec Baldwin who plays Robert Jackson, the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. Christopher Plummer plays Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe who was the chief British prosecutor. Jill Hennesey plays Jackson's assistant. Matt Craven plays Gustave Gilbert who was a military psychologist who was assigned to observe the Nuremberg defendants while in custody.
Colme Feore has 2 scenes as Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz. He's on the stand explaining how he came up with using Zyklon B to kill roughly 2000 people per day and is asked how many people he killed using this method and he casually replies "Two and a half million." The chill down my spine was intense when he said that.
And the entire cast is terrific but one guy stands out.
Brian Cox is one of my favorite character actors, he's never boring to watch, he never doesn't knock it out of the park whether it's him as the bad guy in X2, Edward Norton's father in 25th Hour or a host of what is the definition of scene stealing bit parts like Marvin Belli in Zodiac, Robert Mckee in Adaptation and of course.... he played the original Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann's Manhunter and was by far the best thing in the movie.
And in Nuremberg he plays Herman Goring, who was 2nd in command to Adolf Hitler and the man who came up with the idea for the concentration camps, which would make him the highest ranking Nazi to stand trial for his actions during WW2.... since the rest of the top guys blew their brains out before they could be captured.
This is a BRILLIANT performance. If this was a movie movie released in theaters, Cox would have won an Oscar for this movie.
The way Cox plays this man is literally breathtaking in some instances. I have no idea if his portrayal is based on accounts of how Goring was but the way he plays him is as a very charming, warm, friendly aristocrat. He has a good sense of humor, good husband and father, highly intelligent and knowledgeable and all around personable man.
Which doesn't sound out of the ordinary until it dawns on you that this is one of the chief architects behind the greatest evil the world has ever known and whose racist hatred led to the murder of millions of innocent people.
The way Cox plays him is as a smart man who's a man of the world and accepts his fate right from the jump when he personally surrenders to the American military fully expecting to be shot and not for one moments til the end is not prepared for death.
And most disturbing of all he does not show even the slightest element of remorse for his crimes, these scenes of him explaining his reasoning behind the antisemitic laws that gave way to the Holocaust, it's like he's explaining how a toaster works he's so nonchalant about it.
He's convinced he was right, has no regrets and is prepared for death expecting to be given a place in Valhalla.
The casual nature of Goring and him being a charming guy, chatting with his prison guards like they're co-workers... is so frightening. Which brings me to what came to mind throughout this movie.
Watching this movie and Judgement at Nuremberg the night before I couldn't help but think of the way the trials were conducted, the language used and the explanation behind the acts of genocide... is probably what it will sound like if anyone is brought to justice for the travesty of the way America is handling the US/Mexico border imprisoning thousands of innocent men, women and children.
And Goring being a charming politician who even Americans who fought to overthrow him can't help but enjoy talking to.... reminds me of several accounts of I've heard about Donald Trump, not to mention several other conservative politicians with ideals that would be very at home in Nazi Germany. But a guy like Trump, people say you'd like talking to him one on one and walk away thinking he's not that bad a guy... that's how Brian Cox plays Goring.
There's one scene where Goring is asked how he could do what he did and he goes "What about Hiroshima?" and compares what he did to various acts of violence and hate that America had committed. It brings to mind the "whataboutism" that conservatives love to use in arguments these days when trying to dodge responsibility for anything they do.
"Very fine people on both sides."
You don't even have to TRY to draw a line between the Nazis and elements of the current American government, which creates an aura to this movie that wouldn't have been there when audiences saw it on TNT in 2000.
There's a very unnecessary romance subplot but aside from that I have no real complaints about all 3 hours of this film.
Nuremberg is a very disturbing and fascinating view of a moment in time where good triumphed over evil and villains were brought to justice. There's a sad moment in the final scene where Christopher Plummer's character says someone told him what they did here will ensure nothing like this will ever happen again. He's asked what he thinks and he says with a smirk "We can always hope."
This shouldn't be a relevant film in 2019 but it is.
And it's one of the better films I've seen all year.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An excellent show. It has suspense and drama, keeps fairly well to the true story. Well acted, well directed and worthy of a look.
I would have given it a 5 but for some historical inaccuracies. I can never understand why they change historical events in a show when the changes make no difference to the story and to do it properly would add no cost to production.
A long show (it was a 2-part mini series) but well worth it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Lacking a little in narrative urgency, the film still manages to provide an interesting look at the Nuremberg Trials, and particularly Brian Cox's excellent Göring.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
this is niche but I enjoyed it. It was very long so I skimmed over parts of it.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
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