Member-only story
Adventures in History
Nuremberg Film Tells of Imperfect Men in Search of Imperfect Justice
A new factual fiction dramatizing the Nuremberg Trials does a fine job of rousing audience interest even as it makes a doubtful compromise with recorded history.
[SPOILERS AWAIT!]
If you’re looking for a useful perspective on our current crisis, Nuremberg (2025) is a film that fits the the bill. This traditionally elegant and solemn courtroom drama about the first Nuremberg trial in 1945 of the surviving top echelon of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime unfolds with the stately polish of an old Hollywood prestige picture (such as 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg, a highly fictionalized account). Outside acting their role as distributors, the major studios nowadays have all but left these dramas to independent studios, as their corporate hive minds have become consumed by AI, algorithms, and CGI in their pursuit of ephemeral comic-book fantasies where evil is fought by people in their underwear.
In a very remote way, Nuremberg is a mockery of those noisy, numbing heroics. The only underwear seen here is the stained sort worn by decrepit Nazis as they cringe in their dingy prison cells. The good guys are like people we all…
