Where's My Roy Cohn?

Lots of information to take in and explains more than I expected not just about Roy Cohn but other people that he has been associated with.

Explains the belief system that he basically followed as well. I will leave it at that and leave it to the viewer to watch it unscathed.

As someone who followed Cohn's career in real time it's clear that the film tells real truths about a complicated and fascinating man with no moral boundaries or bottom. And the lesson of Cohn's life, never admit anything, never apologize, and always hit back harder than you were hit, is abundantly demonstrated. Even his own relatives understood the truth. You will not lose interest in this film.

This is a fascinating documentary of Roy Cohn, a New York power broker and uber lawyer, whose adversary, legal or otherwise, you didn't want to be. We see some of the history of the 20th century as Cohn was involved in the Rosenberg's trial ("I would have pulled the switch if they'd let me"), the Army-McCarthy hearings which ushered the downfall of McCarthyism (Cohn was chief Counsel to Senator McCarthy), and numerous mob trials, including the notorious John Gotti, where - no surprise - Cohn pleaded for the mobsters. The film shows an earlier interview with Cohn where this legal barracuda says: "in our adversary system, the lawyer's job is to win, and to win he should try anything that works" (paraphrase). Accordingly, when a certain landlord and his son were sued by the Justice department for racial discrimination, they hired Cohn who promptly counter-sued the Feds for $100 M. This was the lesson Cohn gave the landlord's young son: you never give in, you never admit you're wrong, you go on the offensive and attack your adversaries in any way you can.

I happened to remember seeing "Citizen Cohn," a docudrama (HBO - 1992), where Cohn's confrontational manner was fostered by his wealthy, hard-bitten mother who dominated her weaker husband. This documentary, on the other hand, seems to emphasize Cohn's mother doting on him as well as his affection for her. I'm no psychologist but perhaps Cohn's aggressive manner was fostered by his absurd attempts to hide his homosexuality, when everyone knew it, up to his death from AIDs (which he called liver cancer). Another fascinating item from this doc was how this aggressive, seemingly unlikable man had scores of friends among New York society. I guess power is a seductive agent.

I have to mention before my closing paragraph in this review that the editing and research in this film were outstanding.

Cohn cloaked himself as a great American patriot which is hard to square with his famous comment (also depicted in the film) that: "my goal is to die with no money and owing the IRS millions." Another self-styled patriot, who's a friend neither of taxes or revealing how much he pays, gave us the title of this film, since when this political "personality" was confronted with the Mueller probe and was displeased with the aggressiveness of his lawyers (Rudy Giuliani!), he is supposed to have said: "where's my Roy Cohn?" Obviously, this individual mentored by the notorious Roy Cohn, resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This is a smartly made and entertaining portrait of a narcissistic sociopath ala our current idiot-in-chief. It's good to be informed about how awful men can be. And aspire to be better.

At the time of my review (February 2020) the IMDB score is 6.2/10 which is unfair; it should be much higher. The rating of 6.2 is due to angry republicans upset at the connections made to their heroes Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and others. You may disagree with the conclusion; which is hard to do because these are all facts and all this happened as detailed; but if you don't agree with the conclusions drawn it is wrong to write a review and give it a low rating. This film is balanced and interviews people who liked Roy Cohn and thought he was a great guy. The film tries to find answers to why he was so successful and why people gravitated to him. It's balanced and nuanced. It is well written, well researched, and easy to watch. It's interesting, it's good, I score it 8/10. No way in any universe is this film a 3/10. Only for someone upset with the conclusions and lashing out in anger with ad hominem attacks. If you can get the DVD watch the Q&A with the director and producer in the bonus features. I'm glad I found out about this film and that I was able to watch it.