NUREMBERG THE FILM THAT PUNCHES YOU IN THE FACE BEFORE YOU EVEN SIT DOWN

 If you have ever wondered what it feels like to have your soul wrung out like an old chamois cloth that has been forgotten in the sun then Nuremberg is the film for you. It does not so much begin as it leaps straight at you like a German Shepherd that has been told you are hiding sausages in your pockets.

The whole thing is a towering slab of history drama and humanity delivered with all the subtlety of an air raid siren. You settle in thinking you are about to enjoy a calm evening perhaps nibbling on something civilised and suddenly the film drags you right into one of the most important courtrooms in human history. And it is not gentle. Absolutely not. It grabs you by the lapels and practically shouts LOOK AT THIS THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

And you do because you cannot look away.

The performances are the kind that make you think this is why some actors earn more than the GDP of small nations. The moral weight of the whole thing could flatten an elephant and yet you sit there completely glued as the film peels back layers of horror arrogance and cold blooded bureaucracy with the precision of a surgeon who has no time for bedside manners.

It is not a fun film. Nobody finishes Nuremberg and says let us watch that again with popcorn. You finish it and stare blankly into nothingness wondering how humans can be capable of brilliance and absolute catastrophe in the same century.

But it is important. Not like how your doctor says vegetables are important. More like how brakes are important when you are driving a Bugatti at 250 miles an hour. Nuremberg is the kind of film that reminds you civilisation is a very thin coat of paint and if you are not paying attention someone will start scraping at it.

Powerful yes. Heavy enough to drop you through the floor. Worth watching without a single doubt.

Just do not watch it expecting a relaxing evening. This is history with a clenched fist and it lands every punch perfectly.