OCT 31, 2024 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Rachel Weissman
Disclaimer: This piece details an account of sexual violence. If you or someone you know is in crisis, these resources can help: National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Directed by Ali Abbasi, “The Apprentice,” starring Jeremy Strong who plays Roy Cohn, claims, “This is a nation of men, not laws.” This line sums up “The Apprentice,” and Trump’s rise to success in the 1970s, nicely.
“The Apprentice” begins with Richard Nixon — it was 1972, and with charisma radiating from Nixon, he states his cooperation with the Watergate investigation — an allusion to our upcoming presidential election, one might say. However, after this eerie clip, the audience is not brought to a contemporary portrayal of Trump, played by Sebastian Stan, but rather a younger, humanized version of him: getting too drunk and running out of a restaurant to vomit, (a physical manifestation of his uneasiness of the corrupt world he is entering), his general awkwardness in any social setting (juxtaposing presidential candidate Trump’s over the top confidence) and being an outsider at a party, as we all have been at one point or another.
To my surprise, the title of this film, “The Apprentice,” did not refer to Trump’s stint in reality television, although I’m sure the reference was intentional. Instead, it was a nod to the relationship that developed between Trump and Cohn, Trump’s lawyer and close friend, in the early 1970s.
The relationship between Cohn and Trump was something I did not anticipate from this film. Cohn seems not only to be attracted to Trump’s ambition and naiveté, but the homoerotic undertones of the relationship are perpetuated by Cohn’s intentional physicality with Trump, along with Cohn’s insistence on friendship rather than a business relationship. The complexities of this relationship were central to the apprentice-mentor relationship, as the power dynamic often shifted to Trump as he began to dismiss Cohn’s legal advice and his friendship. This leaves Cohn useless to Trump, causing an imbalance in their quid pro quo relationship. Trump rejected Cohn on numerous occasions, and his obvious discomfort with homosexuality became a point of tension as the film went on, when Cohn eventually contracted AIDS which began the demise of their relationship. Despite Cohn’s role as the “mentor,” and Trump’s role as the “apprentice,” Trump often has the upper hand as the straight, wealthy and overly-confident businessman.
Cohn’s unrequited attraction exploded when Trump announced his engagement to Ivana Zelnícková. Cohn becomes very irritable and strict when the three of them discuss the prenup, and while Ivana begins looking it over, Cohn exclaims “It’s not the Magna Carta, it’s a standard prenup,” to Zelnícková.
However, Trump’s relationship with his new wife soon deteriorates, opposing the declarations of love early on in the film; in the last third of the film, their relationship goes from loving to non-existent. Trump is shown engaging in multiple affairs, exploiting their marriage for tabloids, and sexually assaulting her in a difficult-to-watch scene, detailing the physical and emotional abuse of their marriage. The rape shown in the film derived from an alleged court deposition that Zelnícková gave under oath during her 1990 divorce. Zelnícková later allegedly recanted the rape allegation in 2015 amid Trump’s first presidential campaign. Nonetheless, according to WHDT World News, it is confirmed in unsealed divorce proceedings that their divorce was granted on the grounds of “cruel and inhumane treatment,” adding to the speculations of sexual assault.
This film was powerfully cinematic in its crescendo of creating the Donald Trump we know today. The end of the film shows the original “Make America Great Again” slogan taken from the 1980s Reagan campaign — this gesture completes Trump’s portrayal of a modern-day Frankenstein, as he plays both monster and maker. It is him taking pieces of politicians, his family, his wife and Cohn to create the ideal and oversaturated businessman of the 1980s. In the last scene of the film, Trump repeats Roy’s three rules as his own, deeming himself no longer an apprentice, but a conqueror subduing everyone around him.
The turning point of this movie is when the New York City Council allocates a property tax break to Trump as he begins to construct Trump Tower. With some behind-the-scenes blackmail from Cohn, Trump hesitantly dips his foot into the unexpectedly deep well of corruption. Not only does Trump continually submerge himself deeper into this well, but does it by becoming the egotistical bulldozer we know and love today. Sebastian Stan did a fabulous job in this role as he sank deeper into Trump’s mannerisms and tough-guy working-class New York accent as time went on in the film. Stan, famously known for his reprised role of Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Franchise, was not the actor many expected to play a young Trump, as he is typically cast within the tall, dark and handsome archetype. However, his awkward turned maniacal performance was one so believable, it scared Trump and his campaign enough to take action.
Trump’s response to the movie is consistent with the character built in the film, and nothing I wouldn’t expect. On Truth Social, Trump wrote “A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, ‘The Apprentice’ (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb…..It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country, ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’”
“My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died. The writer of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited, knew that, but chose to ignore it,” Trump added. “So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!”
In a statement to Variety, the Trump campaign’s chief spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers….This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked. As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
I think after watching this movie, the audience knows who Sherman and Abbasi will be voting for. This film unveils the claims of American Nationalism and Evangelical Christianity Trump is currently standing on, and replaces these falsities with truth — narcissism and megalomania go to the bone. Despite the politics, the cinematography, color grading and realism of this film which borders some of the true-crime films currently in circulation, the political implications and surprisingly dark exploits make this film a pillar in the biopic genre that has emerged this century.