Russell Crowe learned a stark lesson in history playing Adolf Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Göring in "Nuremberg."
Speaking at the Oct. 24 AFI Fest premiere of the post-World War II drama, Oscar-winner Crowe, 61, said that people today can be just as morally depraved as they were in Nazi Germany, or in other dark historical times.
"We like to look back at our history, 3,000 or 1,000 years ago, and remark at how bestial we used to be," Crowe said Friday. "Right now, folks, the number of border skirmishes or active wars going around the globe is larger than it's ever been. So we're still bestial."
Crowe said a telling line in "Nuremberg," which opens in theaters nationwide Friday, still sticks with him.
"The last quote in the film is, 'If you want to know what man can do, you have to look at what man has done,'" he said.
