By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor Tuesday, November 04, 2025

In a time when moral conviction can seem negotiable, James Vanderbilt's "Nuremberg," starring Rami Malek, Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon, arrives as a film deeply concerned with conscience and the courage to do what is right even when it is neither popular nor easy.

Written and directed by Vanderbilt, the Sony film, releasing in theaters Nov. 7, revisits the aftermath of World War II, when the world's superpowers convened to hold Nazi Germany's remaining leaders accountable for their atrocities.

Through the eyes of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) and Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), "Nuremberg" serves as both a historical drama and meditation on personal moral duty in the face of evil.

"I was so taken by all of these people coming together to try and do a good thing and sort of choose justice over vengeance," Vanderbilt told The Christian Post. "I feel like it's a great lesson that reverberates."

The 49-year-old director, who previously explored the intersection of truth and obsession in "Zodiac" and "The Post," first encountered the idea for "Nuremberg" more than a decade ago and said he was instantly drawn to the story.

"It was interesting because I came to this 13 years ago, and I thought it was urgent and relevant then," Vanderbilt recalled. "I read a book proposal by a guy named Jack El-Hai. It was only five or six pages, and was sort of the Kelley-Göring story, but it's the fastest I said yes to anything ever. I was just so sort of taken by how much I didn't know about a subject I thought I did know about."

"Everything I learned about this story and everything that's in the movie I had no idea about," he added. "We all sort of studied the trials in U.S. history and stuff like that. But everything I learned about this story, I had no idea."

Based on El-Hai's nonfiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, the film follows Kelley's psychological evaluation of Hermann Göring (Crowe), the cunning Nazi leader responsible for implementing the systematic genocide of the Jewish people, and the philosophical battle that ensues between the two men. 

Set largely in Nuremberg prison and later in a courtroom, the film also explores other significant figures from that period of history, including Justice Jackson and Sgt. Howie Treist (Leo Woodall), the German Jewish interpreter for Kelley and Burton C. Andrus (John Slattery), who runs the Nuremberg prison. 

"At first it was sort of about Kelley and Göring," Vanderbilt said. "But then I read about Michael's character, Robert Jackson, and what he went through to put the trials together. And I sort of thought my movie was over here, but really it's also over here with Robert Jackson. And then I read about how he treats the translator, Leo Woodall's character. And I went, 'Oh my gosh, my movie's also over here.' So it kind of grew and grew and became a blend of all those different stories."

One figure at the center of Vanderbilt's film (which does include some foul language and disturbing Holocaust images) is Justice Jackson (Shannon), a man of law and principle caught between faith and politics, who leads the prosecution. In one of the film's most memorable sequences, Jackson confronts the pope about the Catholic Church's 1933 treaty with Nazi Germany, reminding the pontiff that justice transcends institutional power.

Shannon, who has appeared in Blockbuster films like "Pearl Harbor" and "Man of Steel," told CP he "didn't have to go far" to embody Jackson, a man devoted to moral clarity.

"I pretty much feel the same way. And I don't think it's any secret to anybody that there's a lot of hypocrisy in the world, particularly in religion and politics. I hope I'm not busting anybody's bubble by saying that. I found everything that Jackson said and did pretty agreeable," he said.

"I think it's very easy to feel nowadays that even if you're frustrated with how things are, that there's not much you can do about it," Shannon said. "There's a lot of despondency, and people are prone to hopelessness, and that's why we're so honored to get to play Jackson. Because I think he proves that if you really believe something is necessary, you can do it, but you just have to believe, and you have to work. You have to work really hard."

Shannon added that the scene between Jackson and the pope — in which he forces the Vatican to reckon with its wartime silence and its complicity in signing the Reichskonkordat, a 1933 treaty that gave Hitler legitimacy on the world stage — reflects the former's work ethic, something he said should be "emulated" by viewers.

"That's the biggest aspect of Jackson's character that I think should be emulated, his work ethic, not just what he believed or what he thought, but the fact that he was relentless in his pursuit of it," he said. 

The actor added that, though set eight decades ago, "Nuremberg" highlights a crucial piece of history and raises questions relevant today about accountability, courage and moral responsibility, no matter how unpopular.

"There are a lot of people who think, 'Oh, things should be this way, they should be that way,' but they don't do a d— thing about it," Shannon said. "And [Jackson] did, no matter what, no matter how many times people said no, no matter how many doors got shoved in his face, or how much he got ridiculed for thinking what he thought, he just kept doing it. And he was right."

"Nuremberg" is rated PG-13 and also stars Mark O'Brienn, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt, Lydia Peckham, Richard E. Grant, Lotte Verbeek, Andreas Pietschmann and Steven Pacey. The film hits theaters Nov. 7.

Watch the trailer below.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/nuremberg-film-nazi-thriller-challenges-viewers.html