Nuremberg

It’s Russell Crowe vs Freddie Mercury!

It took a while to accept the casting here (Russell Crowe is so recognisable that you can’t help looking at the screen and shouting “It’s Russell Crowe!”, especially when he is speaking German, but actually once he switches to English I found it easier to buy into the premise. Both the leads are really good here, the supporting cast are right up there with them and the story of the Nuremberg trials is well told, although probably a little simplified and compressed for the sake of the film narrative. The sets were good as well, very convincing and the courtroom itself was an important part of the story.

The extended scenes of the concetration camps were a hard watch - I’ve already read a lot of this history so knew what to expect but perhaps for much of the younger audience it was important to show what was actually at stake here (and to make an inevitable statement about what is going on right now in the world).

A great film, with an important story to tell.