By Viktor Schlatte, Third Year French and Russian
The world was left in shock on the 5th of November as Donald Trump was chosen by the American people to be their president once again. You would think that most people have a good idea of what Donald Trump represents but if not, Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice is in cinemas to paint a grim image of what type of man he truly is. Released in the middle of an election cycle this film, unsurprisingly, had some difficulty being released. Trump’s own lawyers filed a cease and desist to stop its distribution, and Dan Snyder, investor in the film and friend of Donald Trump also tried to stop it being released, shocked by the negative light it showed Trump. But after some legal struggle it is here and pulls no punches. Trump is often seen as a larger-than-life figure, but what The Apprentice does so well is show us that he is indeed human, and a product of the real world. It humanises him not to make him sympathetic, but rather to critique a system which can allow such a man to become the most powerful man on Earth.
Most of the film centres around Trump’s relationship with infamous lawyer Roy Cohn. As ever, Jeremy Strong steals the show in this role. He fully embodies a relentless sociopath, hell-bent on acting in his interests and those of his clients, the richest and most exploitative members of America’s ruling class, among them Trump. The film starts with the two meeting for the first time, with Trump’s family in the middle of a lawsuit, accused of not renting properties to African Americans. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump and is excellent. He does not attempt an impression of Trump’s voice as would be tempting, but his intonation and facial expressions make it unmistakable that this is the man we are all too familiar with. The film is at its strongest when he and Strong are together, and we can see Cohn’s fingerprints all over the Trump of today. It can be a little on the nose, particularly when it comes to Cohn’s golden rule of always claiming victory, even in defeat.
This first part of the film is the most compelling, however, partly due to two excellent performances, and the chilling transformation of Trump from a spoiled child into a genuine monster all under Cohn’s tutelage. What I found especially fascinating though is that Cohn is portrayed as genuinely believing that what he does, exploiting New York’s lower classes and political system to benefit the ultra-rich, is good for America. He repeats that ‘America is the most important client.’ He seems to believe that the elites are the beating heart of America. A common narrative that I am sure most reading this believe, is that Donald Trump acts in his own interests and his alone. This being such a core belief of his mentor challenges this narrative, suggesting that maybe Trump truly does care about America, but the system in which he was brought up gives him such a twisted idea of what is good for the world, a genuinely unique and interesting idea brought up by this film. Unfortunately these are few and far between, as grotesque as the man is, the film does not teach us very much that we did not already know about him.
The second part of the film focuses more on Trump’s relationship with his first wife, Ivana, who is now buried in one of his golf courses. In this relationship Trump is particularly frightening. Ivana is initially charmed by Trump’s absolute determination to be with her, but when Trump tells Cohn he wants to marry her, he describes marriage as a ‘zero-sum gain’ and convinces him to sign a humiliating prenuptial agreement. This concept of a zero-sum gain is something that clearly stays with Trump throughout the film, and the marriage collapses. Here the film does not shy away from showing Trump’s monstrous nature and lack of regard for women, making the reality of him being president-elect of the United States even more frightening. Trump leaves Ivana in the dust as he does everybody else close to him. We see him refuse his clearly struggling brother to stay in his penthouse mere weeks before his death of alcoholism. After his funeral we see Trump cry, something completely unimaginable to us, and he is disgusted by himself for it, in this moment we wonder if Trump resents the man he is, and I wish the film had leant into this more, as it is not a side of Trump we could ever dream of seeing in real life. Trump abandons his wife, family, and ultimately Cohn as they stop being of use to him.
By the end of the film Cohn does not recognise the monster he has created, and as he is dying of what suspected AIDS, he visits Trump and is left in awe at the heartlessness of the man and the way he was abandoned by him in his moment of need, and we can not help but fear that this will be how will treat the world now that he has returned to the top.
What did you think of The Apprentice and Sebastian Stan's portrayal of Trump?
The Apprentice is now available to buy and rent from digital platforms and will be available to own on Blu-ray and DVD from 6th January 2025.
