Nuremberg 2025 Movie Review: Rami Malek and Russell Crowe Summon History

Nuremberg is an adaptation of the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by the critically acclaimed, bestselling author Jack El-Hai. I got a chance to talk to the man himself and found Jack to be a fascinating and secretly humorous person to talk to on video. He got me to break at least twice without warning while talking about his opinions on movies and shows.

Here is my review of the movie Nuremberg 2025 for you fine people to check out.

The Book on Which This Movie is Based

As Jack El-Hai puts it, "My book focuses on the encounters between a U.S. Army psychiatrist named Douglas Kelly and the 22 members of the German High Command who were captured at the end of World War II.

These men were held first in Luxembourg, then later in Nuremberg, for trial on charges of war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. Dr. Kelly’s job was to assess whether these men suffered from psychiatric illness and whether they were mentally fit to stand trial.

That’s a low bar—it simply means they understand the charges, know right from wrong, and can participate in their defense. Kelly was very talented and was in a unique position, working among men seen as some of the worst criminals of the 20th century.

He went further and wanted to find out whether they shared any serious psychiatric illness that could explain their behavior. The final chapters of my book also explore what happened to Dr. Kelly afterward, as he entered a professional and personal decline.

The Plot of the Nuremberg 2025 Movie

The movie focuses mainly on Douglas Kelly's interaction with Herman Goring through the duration of the trial and until Goring kills himself.

Jack says that the movie gets the message of his book right ( which is what matters! ), so I am limited as a movie reviewer in dissing this movie or comparing it to any other movie that explores World War II topics. One thing I do agree with the author on is that movies are a form of storytelling that can be depicted in many ways, and Nuremberg 2025 is one of those ways to weave a story around what happened in Germany.

On a related note, regarding the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, which is non-fiction writing, does not offer many freedoms in terms of sticking strictly to the facts, with interpretations of the events on which the author can have a say while stating such.

As far as movies go, the facts on which the plot is based don't resemble an action comedy and portray it as such through the lens of the director James Vanderbilt. They seem to have done justice to the way things played out in the very first of the Nuremberg Trials, leaving little to the imagination between this movie and the documentaries now available to the public.

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The Cast

Rami Malek and Russell Crowe deliver effortlessly great performances with a pair of narcissistic personalities trying to get the best of each other, and both of them walking away with less.

Göring carried out an act of defiance (quoting you, Jack! ) by killing himself with a cyanide capsule, the source of which is not important for the scope of this review. Kelly lost a lot more over the course of time, losing his mind and then his life, to get people to acknowledge his issues.

Rami Malek put his own spin on Douglas Kelly's personality, approved by Jack El-Hai. Russell Crowe does a great job of playing the authoritarian Reich Marshall ( Air Force Chief ) of the German rule under Hitler.

Through the course of Kelly and Göring's interaction, they formed a genuine rapport that is probably at the core of this movie. Crowe depicts a man with the need for an infallible image as most authoritarians do, and a staunch following that comes with maintaining such a facade.

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The Reich Marshal's posse during his time in prison included Rudolf Hess ( played by Andreas Pietschmann ) and Robert Ley ( Tom Keune ), and more. Robert Ley was the only one who was declared mentally ill or clinically insane based on Kelly's diagnosis.

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Should You Watch This? Yes!

At a time when the voice of the masses goes unheard, this movie is a must-watch to stir the general public into action against undemocratic circumstances, authority without accountability, and against the consolidation of power in any domain where none is required.