Dariusz Wolski, the legendary director of photography, delivers throughout Nuremberg. From the claustrophobic grays and browns of the Nazi’s prison cells to sweeping shots of war-torn Germany, he transports us back in time to the tumultuous period. The film boasts impressive production values, especially considering (what’s rumored to be) an under-$30 million budget.
Then there’s the highfalutin dialogue. Example: “I’m getting you a drink.” “I don’t want a drink!” “Then I’m getting me another and getting you one for show.” Everything is spelled out — there’s no reading between the lines here because the lines are so thick with exposition. How’s this for a grammatically-twisted mouthful: “You will be given nothing with which to use as a weapon to take your own lives.” The whole “what did you like about Hitler” sequence between Göring and Kelly (“Douglas, I will not stand against the Führer”) is just as ludicrous and weirdly mesmerizing as most of the interactions between the two leads.
Russell Crowe stars as Hermann Göring on trial in Nuremberg.
“Crowe is a master who knows exactly what the material calls for.”
Nuremberg is well-researched. The first hour is quite thrilling, the viewer sharing Douglas’s excitement as he meets the despicable Nazis. But the glorification of that thrill feels a little icky, as do the comedic tidbits (such as the weird, sped-up Benny Hill-like aside). Hannah Arendt was onto something: evil is banal; there’s not much to understand, just people given an opportunity to have power over others. The second half of the film becomes a bit of a chore, an umpteenth courtroom drama, albeit with obvious resonance.
About halfway through the film, we witness an actual horrific documentary that takes a look inside the concentration camps. It’s a tremendously powerful moment, trumping everything else in this feature — a moment, in fact, from which it’s next to impossible to recover. As war rages on around the globe, it also serves as a powerful reminder of what we’re capable of, and what still happens as I write this, and we all live with that knowledge.
To conclude, Nuremberg is a competently made, overlong, corny, entertaining, poignant epic made by the filmmaker responsible for writing classics like Zodiac and duds like Independence Day: Resurgence — a jumble of the man’s best and worst tendencies. Scattershot? Yes. Way too long? Sure. Predictable? Yes. Cheesy? Yes. Did I secretly kinda love it? No comment, your honor.
"…glorification of that thrill does feels a little icky..."
