Either it was trending cuz a lot of other people are thinking the way I am, or Amazon just knew when to put something up front and in your face to make the most of a potential sale. Oh fuck, who am I kidding, it's the latter. Amazon didn't get to where they are by not having good sales sense. Right on the homepage on Amazon Prime Video was featured the movie The Apprentice available to rent now for just $5.99 or, for just four bucks more, you could own it. I chose to buy it since, you never know, this may be the last night it's available.
Tomorrow afternoon, in front of about a dozen or so marble statues, a few hundred in-person spectators, and maybe a few hundred million TV and live streaming viewers, the subject of this movie, albeit some fifty years or so older than what's depicted in the film, will become again the most powerful man in the world.
And soon thereafter, just because it may be a little bit of a thorn in his side, and, we all know he's petty like that, he may well seek to squash the ability to have this movie exist in the same world that we all do. At least now I own my own copy. Well at least a digital version on amazon.com. And that'll be honored no matter what, right?
After seeing it, I've got to admit, it isn't as scathing as I thought it would be. From the hubbub surrounding it when it was released just this past fall, I thought it'd be a lot worse in its portrayal of the Orange One. (In fact it only mentioned the color orange in reference to his skin but once, I guess that's because that hue came a little bit more toned with age.)
Now don't get me wrong, there are many scenes in this movie that his more right-wing Bible-thumping followers would flip their lids over if they saw it and believed it. Problem is, even if they saw it, they would decry it as a total work of fiction. Yet I think for many of his 'Merica Fuck Yeah brouhaha MAGAs, they'd actually applaud it! Even the rape scene.
By the way, Sebastian Stan's portrayal was absolutely spot on in my opinion. He didn't do an "impression." It wasn't at all over the top. His mannerisms and speech were measured and very accurate to depictions of him at the time. His development of his personality from its feeble beginnings in the mid 70s when he was coming into his own just before the remodeling of the Commodore Hotel through to the building of the iconic tower near Central Park with his name on it, to his rocky marriage to Ivana and his eventual celebrity status as the real estate king of New York; being able to tell not only the mayor but also his old mentor Roy Cohen to go fuck themselves. But it was touching too in that he did have a little sense of loyalty (but perhaps with a little bit of disdain...and fear of AIDS) in the end for Old Roy letting him die out gracefully, if you will, at his Florida Mar-A-Lago estate.
Now of course, how much of this movie is actual fact, is to be taken with a grain of salt. We know that. But I don't doubt for a minute that the essence is true and It represents the heart and spirit of the man who we will tomorrow see take his oath of office once again.
God bless America! I guess we're going to need it.
Side note: Yes, I'm entirely aware I totally avoided mentioning his name even once. Please bitch, he gets enough fucking press.