The Apprentice
Written by Gabe Sherman, Starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova
“The Apprentice” is a biopic of the early days of the rise of Donald Trump. It is a brilliant work, especially considering the hurried, momentous timing of its release. It is an artistic triumph, especially for Jeremy Strong. but also Sebastian Stan, an actor who I had never heard of before.
It is a hard film to watch in many ways. It is gritty and its low budget shirttails hangout (like Donald’s white dress shirt in several scenes as he is pulling on his pants getting ready to hit the Manhattan night.) The camera doesn’t flinch from glimpses of raw gay and public sex, marital rape, or Donald’s liposuction and scalp reduction surgery. It captures the trashy streets of 1970s NY.
It begins with Donald in a cheap suit, driving a big (but dirty) Cadillac sedan through one of the outer Boroughs to a low-end high-rise apartment building where he proceeds to knock on doors collecting and shaking down rent from very poor, old, but mostly white tenement dwellers. The hallway smells, and the barking dogs and crying children and the profanity-laced complaints about his demands for back rent disgusts him, and shows his self-righteous anger and self-pity. But compassion? Zero. The actor Sebastian Stan realistically portrays the empty callousness of a small time loser dreaming of something he knows is out there, but is out of reach.
But then Trump meets Roy Cohn at a restaurant and things begin to happen for him. Jeremy Strong exudes evil from the moment you see him. He brags about how he conned the Judge (illegally, "ex parte") in the Rosenberg case to sentence both Ethel and Julius to death, in-spite of the weak case against Ethel. Roy Cohn is a gay Jew who explodes with hatred against homosexuals and is a virulent anti-Semite. He teaches Donald three rules – attack, deny, and declare victory no matter the outcome.
The film portrays Donald growing from an very average NYC schmo, not too bright or socially perceptive, into the monster he became under Cohn’s tutelage. His early attempts to impress bankers and developers is grossly transparent, revealing a total lack of interpersonal adroitness. But gradually, as he follows Cohn around the Manhattan Party scene we see him pick cues better, and become something of a real estate player. Then he meets Ivana, who marries him in spite of the insulting prenup Cohn writes for Donald, and she begins to smooth out some of his edges.
In the end roles reverse – Cohn becomes almost sympathetic, as he is betrayed by Donald, who evicts Cohn’s AIDS-stricken, long time boy friend from his hotel. Stan the actor shows Donald as he becomes even more desensitized, and begins to repeat himself as he ages, even in the early days. Donald, masters Cohn’s three rules (see above) and pushes his way into Atlantic City and beyond. He is no longer the "Apprentice", but the over-confident blowhard we all know, even as Cohn warns him that he is becoming over-leveraged. But nothing can tame Trump’s greed. A light suddenly comes on in Cohn’s eyes as he sees what he has created. Donald’s older brother Fred, addicted, sick and dying comes knocking on the door, desperate for help, but Donald pushes him out, in a scene where Ivana sees her own future.
Trump’s relationship with his father is shown but not deeply explored. I suppose some might see it as a weak point. But this to-the-point film has a clear warning message that FOX News will undoubtedly call “a hit-job” and - and – so what? (As Trump said when told the Jan 6 rioters wanted to kill Mike Pence.)
I had a professor in college who said that Shakespeare's Richard III was not appreciated as a great play until the 20th century. It was considered by early critics as too over the top, and a caricature, because surely no one could be such a baldfaced liar, so unconditionally evil. But then we had the 20th century dictators who showed exactly how it was done. Yes - it is possible to be that empty of humanity and still finds a way to climb to the top. Now our generation knows that as well.
Politics had nothing to do with the way the film moved me. I was shaken as we left the theater.
It is a travesty that HBO or Apple didn’t pick the film up to stream 24 hours every day until the election. Mary and I went today, opening day, and there were only two (2) other people in the theater.
