A few months ago in late November, I wrote a review of the movie "Nuremberg."
But my girlfriend and I saw it again recently. And after going back to read - or rather, peruse - my own review, something dawned on me: it was not very much to my liking. It just seemed to me that, based on the review, most of what I got from it as a warning about the present day rise of fascism and hatred in the United States.
And while I still believe that this was a prominent part of what audiences are supposed to get out of this movie, it nevertheless is not the full story. After all, this movie is about an actual historical event and the controversies surrounding it. The focal point is, of course, Hermann Göring, the second-highest ranking Nazi of the Third Reich.
So after seeing the movie again and being less than entirely impressed with my initial review, let me try again.
One note: the review was not disastrous in my eyes. It just felt incomplete, and not as focused as perhaps it should have been. That said, I will keep the original review, but add more to it, and perhaps cut snippets here and there, as deemed necessary.
Here goes:
My girlfriend and I went to see Nuremberg on Sunday evening. This was a movie which had intrigued me since I first learned about it. So I looked forward to seeing it, and finally saw it a little over two weeks after it was released.
Before I go on, of course, there should be the standard warning to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this movie already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning.
Ready?
Now, this is a history movie, largely based on actual events. So in that regard, a "spoiler alert" seems a little...well, pointless. After all, of this has happened and, I assume, most people actually going to see this movie are likely at least passingly familiar with what actually happened here.
Still, there are different interpretations of historical events. I read one review from a Jewish person who was entirely dismissive of the movie and at least claimed to have walked out halfway through, because it was evidently too antisemitic for their tastes. They used one story told by Hermann Göring in particular as the illustration of this perceived bias. And while I can understand that to a certain degree, it did not feel to me that this movie was either antisemitic or hate mongering in total or in tone, or that it glossed over the crimes committed against Jews (and others) during the Holocaust. Far from it. Also, frankly, to claim that the words from a very high-ranking Nazi official in a movie largely centered on that historical figure are somehow proof that the movie is antisemitic seems a little...well, naive. Would you prefer a sanitized version of history, so that the actual antisemitism is glossed over, and the reasons for the crimes against humanity themselves are, therefore, glossed over?
I don't get it.
Anyway, that was my personal slice of opinion. Yes, there are definitely antisemitic views by some of the characters in this movie. But can you expect anything different with a movie focusing on high-ranking Nazi officials? I'm sorry, but it seems obvious that some antisemitic views will be seen and heard, since this is based on history. Hello?
So I acknowledge some of criticisms of this movie and how bothered they were by the way that it seemingly humanized the Nazis, and particularly Hermann Göring. While I can sympathize to some degree, it seems also that this is what we need right now. Not another movie which portrays Nazis as inhuman monsters, but to recognize that they actually were human beings. That they had their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams (yes, even after the war ended disastrously for Germany), and their insecurities, their arrogance and hubris, and all of that.
It is this arrogance which makes so many of these high-ranking Nazis feel exempt from any possible consequences from their criminal actions. Never before had their been anything like a World Court or the Nuremberg Trials, and the Nazis - particularly Göring - are very much aware of this fact. It is in their interests to remind everyone of this fact frequently, because there really was no precedent for the Nuremberg Trials. That is part of the challenge, trying to bring these men to some sort of official justice, and not simply shooting them. It is an attempt by the victorious Allied nations to try to illustrate that they are not as barbarous as Nazi Germany had been. Still, it is not certain that such a trial can be coordinated, or that everyone will be on board. Ultimately, the four major victorious European powers - the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union - did go along with it, adding legitimacy to the trial. The movie did not focus too extensively on this, although it was addressed.
To the extent that the movie does document these challenges, it is mostly through American Robert Jackson, one of the prosecutors at the trial. He is played by Michael Shannon, and it is some excellent acting. Indeed, you do get the feeling that you are watching a judge of the 1940's struggling with the newness of this world trial. He is shown trying to gain support, including a trip to the Vatican, where he is actually accused of trying to blackmail the Pope to support the trials. There is also the challenge of trying to build a case, which means isolating the crimes of the Nazis, and not just generalizing. After all, it had been a brutal war, and as Göring makes clear at some points in the movie, the Allies were also guilty of war crimes and astonishing horrors, including dropping "the bomb" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So Jackson has to try and build a case that the Nazis were uniquely criminal in conduct, and that proves anything but easy.
Rami Malek plays psychiatrist Douglas Kelly, who checks on the mental and physical health of these high-ranking Nazis. This also becomes complicated, because there is doctor/patient confidentiality to think about, as well as what seems almost like friendship between Kelly and Göring at times. However, Kelly wants Jackson to succeed in prosecuting Göring and the rest of the Nazis. To that end, he warns Jackson that he is seriously underestimating Göring. Indeed, the first part of the trial shown in the movie reveals exactly that. Göring is in his element and Jackson trips on his own feet in trying to pin down this crafty Nazi official. It is only through the assistance and some fancy legal footwork by the British prosecutor that finally trips Göring up. After this exchange, everyone knows that the outcome of the trial has already been decided.
In short, whether you like it or not, these people were human beings. Yes, they absolutely, undeniably did some things and committed some crimes which force people to question their humanity. But in fact, they are human beings, with real lives and real human traits that we can all relate to. That's not being antisemitic by acknowledging that simple fact. it's just the reality. In fact, to me, the fact that these people really are human beings, and that the movie shows them in that light, makes what happened all the more horrific. Because indeed, these very human people were responsible for a chapter in history that will surely never be forgotten while civilization lasts. The level of cruelty, particularly the bureaucratic nature of a mass extermination, is what makes what they did stand out so uniquely in history. If we dumb it down so that they are regarded only and exclusively as monsters, I think that we miss the point of the danger of something like this actually happening again. These were real people, and they orchestrated a terrible chapter in human history that almost everyone agrees should never be repeated. However, it seems to me a prerequisite for us to understand their humanness in order to avoid something like this in the future. If we turn them into caricatures, to people who we cannot relate to at all, then what lessons are to be learned?
Remember the timing for when this movie is coming out. After all, the United States itself suddenly cannot seem to avoid putting a seemingly unstable populist who plays people's fear and prejudices and even hatreds for his own narrow political gain. Believe me, I understand the temptation to dehumanize him, or billionaires who keep orchestrating policies behind the scenes so that they can make still more billions or even trillions. However, we must remember that they are human beings, and not mere caricatures (much less Gods).
At one point, we see Hermann Göring, who is brilliantly captured by Russell Crowe, conversing in a relaxed manner about why he, and Germans more generally, turned to Hitler. And he says that Hitler made them feel more German. He had simple solutions which seemed workable, and promised to restore German pride and greatness.
Does that sound familiar? Personally, I believe that Trump has that same message for many Americans who otherwise feel forgotten. There are some similarities, albeit obviously also some differences, between Germany in the 1930's leading up to the rise of the Nazis, and the modern day realities and circumstances in the United States which have led to the rise of Trump and MAGA. I never "got" the apparent dark charisma or charm, but that does not mean that it does not exist. What Göring describes in this movie about Hitler felt like it resonated, because Trump seems to make whole groups of people feel less forgotten. He appeals to a largely fictional time in American history when everything supposedly was right, when the country worked well and was unified and strong. He often harkens back to a time when white people - and particularly white men - enjoyed a very privileged status in the country. And I personally believe that this is a large part of his appeal, since the core of his support is white people, and especially white men. Not a minor point, in my personal opinion.
Of course a movie like this is going to be controversial. It is about a doctor who is ascertaining the mental and physical health of Nazis who are about to go on trial for crimes against humanity. So he is focusing on the very human side of what the entire world at that point viewed as inhuman monsters. Not light subject matter, to be sure. Bound to upset some people.
Isn't that the point, though?
Personally, I thought that this was a good movie. And timely, for that matter. There is a reason why it came out when it did. Now especially, when Trump for the first time suggested that some opposition government officials might be imprisoned and even executed. It hardly feels like it could have been an accident. that this particular movie comes out when it has.
So to me, it is very important. Crucial, even. We need to understand the history of the Holocaust, of how something like that was possible. These days, too many people seem to have forgotten history and, let's face it, nowhere in any advanced society has the history of the Holocaust been so largely forgotten and/or misunderstood as it has here in the United States. To me, that is why so many people seem to scoff at any comparisons between Trump and monsters of the past. That is why he gets away with so damn much, when he has a hard time criticizing outright Nazis and white supremacists in Charlotteville a few years ago, or when he posts a supporter shouting "White power!" as he did during the 2020 campaign, or when he suggests that parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended, as he did on his Truth Social in 2022, or now that he has very recently called for the execution of political opposition. Too many people are dismissing all of this as inconsequential, or "Trump being Trump."
This is dangerous and, frankly, unprecedented territory that we find ourselves in here in the United States. Sometimes, it feels to me already that our democracy is a thing of the past. Yet we need to keep reminding ourselves that Trump is only as powerful as the American people allow him to be. And the time to stand up to all of this is now, not later. Not when his power is even more entrenched.
At the very end, the movie moves away from Nazis and the Holocaust, and turns instead to the doctor, who wrote a book that did very poorly. He wrote about the high-ranking Nazis
To that end, we see different aspects of the character of Hermann Göring. He is highly intelligent and capable, and has a fierce measure of self-discipline. Göring also clearly loves his wife and daughter. He is a man of some refinement, having been wealthy and a love of fine art. Yet, this is also the same man who signed horrific orders that made unbelievable suffering possible. He seems unmoved by the images of the victims of Nazi concentration camps and death camps. When pressed and backed into a corner as to whether or not he would still support Hitler knowing what he knows now, he confirms that he would indeed support Hitler, before shouting "Heil Hitler!"
It seems that what we get to see of Hermann Göring is a complicated man, not just a simple monster. That makes him feel more real which, in turn, makes it all the more astonishing that a man who seems quite reasonable at times could have done such monstrous things. It would be only too easy to not understand him as an actual human being, but as a one dimensional monster completely removed from our understanding of reality. But when we instead see him having issues and concerns that we all can relate to - obvious love and concern for his wife and child, addiction to substances (he was a serious drug addict), struggling with weight and heart issues, then embarrassment when he finds out that most of the guards view him as a fat man and trying to do something about it, to get back into shape- are everyday realities that most of us, if not all of us, face. We can identify with that. Yes, he was a real human being. Yet, he also did some incredibly evil things and, when pushed to a corner, he expressed no real regret and doubled-down, saying that he would do it all over again if given a chance.
This is important, because to understand the Holocaust - or any tragic chapter in history - we want to understand that it was actual, real human beings who created this misery. In fact, that is what makes this kind of thing all the more frightening. It's not the "Germans," or Hitler, or relegated to one particular era in history. This can happen again. In fact, mass suffering and genocides have happened numerous times since, in Nigeria in the 1960's, in China in the 1960's during the "Great Leap Forward, in Cambodia in the 1970's, in Rwanda in the 1990's, in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's, and in Sudan in the 21st century.
Can it happen again?
Absolutely.
That is why movies like this are so important. They bring these historical chapters to life. In so doing, we see that many of these things are not unique to our time. That there were certainly similarities and, thus, an opportunity to learn from the past.
At the end of the movie, well after the trial and the executions of to-ranking Nazi officials, we see Douglas Kelly warning Americans with his book and on the radio of the dangers of power-hungry, manipulative individuals seeking high positions. While others do not warm to his message that such things could happen here in the United States, that we are different (the old "American exceptionalist" arguments), Kelly insists that Americans also need to be careful, Such hatred can indeed be drummed up here on American soil, and a manipulative, populist leader can possibly come to power in the Untied States. However, his arguments fall on deaf ears, and he grows frustrated with the indifference which his arguments are consistently met with. We find out that he committed suicide about a decade and change after the Nuremberg Trial, using the same method which Göring used.
Ultimately, this is a mature movie with serious subject matter and themes. It takes a bit of knowledge of history and understanding some of the challenges which those who created the trial faced. Also, it does show the human side of all of the characters, including the frustrations of each.
So I highly recommend this movie.
When the movie ends, this quote is shown on the screen. Figured it would also be worth sharing here, as well:
"The only clue to what man can do is what man has done,"
~ R.G. Collingwood
This is an important snippet of an interview of Hermann Göring by Gustave Gilbert. Göring is explaining how people do not want to go to war, but leaders can get past that and persuade the people to go along with the war. Gilbert then interjects and claims that the exception would be a democracy, giving the example of the United States. Göring, however, pretty easily dismisses this exception, suggesting that fundamentally, these tactics work regardless of the country or political system.
Take a look at this fascinating and revealing exchange:
"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Here is the link to where I got this exchange from:
Nuremberg Diary - by Gustave Gilbert Interview with Herman Goering:
https://www.mit.edu/people/fuller/peace/war_goering.html
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