Former President Need Not Fight Unflattering Film Focused on Mentor Roy Cohn
Like its protagonist, The Apprentice (123 minutes, 2024) will mean different things to different people and enable an odd mix of confirmation biases. Those watching the same enthralling portrayal of the young Donald Trump and his attorney-mentor Roy Cohn (1927–1986) will extract starkly different conclusions. MAGA partisans will likely highlight Trump’s courage, ambition, and productivity. Those infected with Trump derangement syndrome will dwell on his ruthlessness, ego, and, at times, cold demeanor.
Both are right and have more than a kernel of truth to their versions of the story. However, given the October 11 US release, less than a month before the presidential election, both sides are amid the battle and likely to miss the point of The Apprentice. As Iranian-born and Denmark-based Director Ali Abbasi explained on the leftist Democracy Now! program, he does not have a partisan ax to grind, and he sought to provide the broader human side of both Trump and Cohn.
‘The Apprentice’ Rises Above Partisanship, Humanizes Donald Trump
Former President Need Not Fight Unflattering Film Focused on Mentor Roy Cohn
October 14, 2024 Fergus Hodgson English, Reviews
The Apprentice
The film’s accuracy cannot be down to the word but the account, for the most part, is believable. (Gage Skidmore)
Abbasi’s interest has been in the historic, influential relationship between the two larger-than-life men and the broader system that rewarded some of their unsavory actions: “[The Apprentice] is about a transformative relationship … a buddy movie for two villains, if you like, or two superheroes, or two antiheroes, whichever way you want to look at it.” Abbasi also tweeted that the film “is not taking sides politically. It’s entertaining and surprising and I feel it’s a fair portrayal of these colourful and polarising characters.”
The film’s accuracy cannot be down to the word—no doubt there is plenty of creative embellishment and improvisation—but the account, for the most part, is believable. The screenwriter was Gabriel Sherman, a Vanity Fair correspondent who has long covered Trump’s escapades. Further, an out-of-the-blue endorsement came from Roger Stone: “The portrayal of Roy Cohn by actor Jeremy Strong in the new movie The Apprentice is uncanny in [its] accuracy.”
Stone, a political consultant to and long-time friend of Trump and Cohn, features as a minor character in the film, and few people would be better positioned to comment on The Apprentice‘s veracity. I got to meet Stone in the mid-2010s at a speaking engagement with a libertarian club near his home in Hollywood, Florida. He has seen a lot and, at that time, was promoting his books: The Clintons’ War on Women (2015) and Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family (2016).
Although The Apprentice goes overboard on lewdness and titillation, its character development and acting are impressive. Despite cackles from cat ladies in the audience, the viewer at the cinema is able to feel empathy for both Cohn and Trump. The same goes for many of those around Trump, especially for the late Ivana Trump (née Zelníčková), played by the captivating Bulgarian, Maria Bakalova.
While one does not wish to release spoilers, the richness of the film captures the ironies inherent in the Trump-Cohn relationship, which came undone in later years, and in their strategies and world views: seemingly unprincipled but also staunchly anticommunist. This juxtaposition was no easy task, and it speaks to the attention to detail and passion of the director and producers.
Precision necessitated political incorrectness, perhaps catalyzed by a foreign director, and The Apprentice conveys the ugly side of real estate and night life in 1970s New York City. Trump’s father calling the US Justice Department a bunch of faggots hit the nail on the head of the likely sentiment. Further, the passing of older brother Fred Jr. to alcoholism in 1981 explained Donald’s aversion towards alcohol, which stands to this day.
The former president has released a statement calling The Apprentice “A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie.… a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job.” Only Trump and those nearest to him know what went on behind closed doors, so some of the most salacious content is hearsay. The subtitle, An American Horror Story, is hyperbolic and likewise compounds this problem.
However, none of us is a saint, and most of us do not want our dirty laundry aired to the world. We are inclined to forgive when someone owns up to character flaws.
Meanwhile, the film demonstrates Trump’s many admirable traits. By going on a rant about this film, Trump is raising its profile and adding weight to the idea that it has grave revelations about him. It does not and was not meant to be a hit-job.
Rather, it is a portrayal of two men thriving amid shark-infested waters and coming out on top. Those uninclined to watch a sober documentary will appreciate this film, which captures the drama amid the successes and failures of a momentous man who, with the pivotal help of Cohn, has changed the course of US history.
The opinion of this article is foreign to Noticiero El Vigilante
