A fresh adaptation of Nuremberg is so perfectly poignant in the new age of America’s fascistic state that it’d be easy to recommend the film on that merit alone. The title itself has likely coursed through the minds of all those watching the Trump administration’s increasing cruelty, where the consistent idea seems to be, “When this is all over, there needs to be a Nuremberg trial.” While James Vanderbilt’s film doesn’t exactly evoke anything more groundbreaking than the previous adaptation, Judgment at Nuremberg, it does entertain the most compelling question: How did we get to a point where we need another trial against fascists?

Much like Stanley Kramer’s classic film, Vanderbilt’s version boasts an impressive cast. The likes of Richard E. Grant and Michael Shannon deliver expected monologues of authority, with Grant as British prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe and Shannon as American prosecutor Robert H. Jackson. But the film spends the most time with the psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and his interviews with the imprisoned Nazi leader Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe). Kelley tries to understand the man who worked with Hitler through several interviews and interactions with Göring’s wife and daughter. Their conversations always have the element of deception corrupting empathy, perfectly encapsulated in Kelley’s magic trick, which he imparts to the Nazi, hoping to find humanity, but only instructing on another tactic.

Nuremberg treats its battle of wits as more of a war between a standard recitation of history and an attempt to explore its deeper psychological aspects. A robust ensemble gets all dressed up to recreate a critical moment in history and feels a little stiff as they try to stick to history’s script. There’s rarely a moment when the characters don’t appear on the clock to hit all the essential details, as with John Slattery barking orders as army officer Burton C. Andrus and Colin Hanks offering coldly clinical assessments as competing psychologist Gustave Gilbert. The first scene with Jackson features him drinking at home while immediately outlining the importance of putting the Nazis on trial, with some pushback about the international complications.

All of this is not to say that Nuremberg isn’t effective in achieving its ultimate goal of drawing further attention to the construction of the trials, the resulting testimonies, and why that history is essential today. The stern focus on the facts does bring out some genuine humanity and drama from the situation, as when the prosecution displays footage of a concentration camp with the many corpses amassed from Nazi hatred. A distraught Douglas can hardly stand the footage and later confronts Göring over how he could be so monstrous in his duties. Göring’s defense is a common one among fascists: deny as much as possible to downplay any wrongdoing and get away with genocide. Semantics and vagueness become helpful tools of the Nazis; anything to avoid saying the quiet part out loud, making it cathartically satisfying when the trial’s climax results in Göring being caught and forced to admit that he knew about the horrors he had caused.

Nuremberg is historically relevant and features some fine drama, despite the rigid path it follows with an accomplished cast. For many who have watched numerous adaptations of this event and read up on the details, this will likely be a standard review with some brilliant bursts of fine acting. Looking at this more from the perspective of a classroom film, the film gets the job done of bringing this history alive and tries to find the anger and fear that came with prosecuting the Nazis after World War II. If nothing else, the film does end with a chilling warning about how fighting Nazis didn’t end with Nuremberg. Douglas Kelley’s final lines of a prophecy came true: that the subsequent rise of fascism would not come with a clearly labeled swastika. And in the decades to come, it won’t be a red hat either. Given that aspect, there’s a need for this type of film, even if it comes off as more prescriptive than provocative.