A new film dramatising Donald Trump's rise to fame and fortune has provoked everything from an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes to threats of legal action from the former president.
"The Apprentice", which opens in UK cinemas on Friday, examines Trump's career as a property mogul in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was mentored by ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn. The movie includes the disclaimer that portions were "fictionalised for dramatic purposes", said The Guardian, but it still faced "numerous roadblocks" to get made.
'Most brutal Trump biopic' Most controversially, "The Apprentice" contains a scene in which Trump, played by Marvel actor Sebastian Stan, sexually assaults his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova). In real life, she claimed during divorce proceedings that Trump had raped her but later downplayed the allegation, saying in 1993 that she didn't want her words to be "interpreted in a literal or criminal sense".
The new film, said Rolling Stone, is "the most brutal Donald Trump biopic imaginable". Even without the "sickening" rape scene, it would still feel like a "damning portrait". That might explain why Hollywood institutions were reluctant to finance the project.
In a post on his Truth Social platform this week, Trump called the film a "cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job" designed to thwart his presidential campaign. His team threatened legal action to "address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers".
'Not a hit job' "The Apprentice" does portray Trump as "a rapist, a liar and a sketchy businessman who stiffs just about everyone", said Politico's Michael Schaffer. But it is "an almost shockingly sympathetic depiction". Rather than a "born psychopath", the character is a "striver who gradually loses his humanity". While there is plenty to "absolutely horrify" Trump's supporters, he is depicted as "tragic, not evil".
Financing for the film "fell apart" several times because the depiction was deemed by liberal figures to be "too sympathetic" towards Trump, the director, Ali Abbasi, told NPR.
"This is not a hit job on Trump," said Deadline. It is a portrait of a man "striving for the approval of a tough-love father, unsure but determined to succeed" – and he comes across as "even oddly charming at times". |