“That’s the way I felt about the young Donald”: The Movie Donald Trump Doesn’t Want You to See Compared Him With a Stanley Kubrick Icon

SUMMARY

• The Apprentice was shrouded in many controversies.
• Months after its release, director Ali Abbasi reveals how the young Donald is similar to Richmond Barry in Barry Lyndon.
• Both the characters have a penchant for climbing to the top with no worries for the cost.

With The Apprentice hitting the theatres not long before the US Election, there was a lot of speculation about what impact the movie would have on the polling results. Almost three months down the line, we’re in a better position to understand what impact it had (if any).

Yet, that doesn’t change one fact – Donald Trump was not ready for the world to see the movie. The Sebastian Stan starrer had caused quite the stir in Trump’s camp, with the former (and soon-to-be) President also considering the legal route. And it’s all because of Director Ali Abbasi’s vision to compare him with one anti-hero.

Why Donald Trump was not ready for the world to see The Apprentice

The Apprentice almost didn’t see the light of day || Briarcliff Entertainment

The fact that The Apprentice managed to hit the theatres at the time it did is a marvel in itself. Trump’s legal team was all over the project. Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung had labelled the movie as ‘garbage’. He said,

This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked. As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked. (The Guardian)

That did not come to pass, and the movie made it to the big screen on 11th October 2024. And it turned a lot of eyes for its representation of Donald Trump.

The Apprentice brings to light the story of how Donald Trump rose to the heights || Briarcliff Entertainment

The movie traces the evolution of how Trump became the man who would walk to one of the top seats of power in the world twice. And director Ali Abbasi believes that his journey mirrors the story of a classic character – Barry Lyndon from Stanley Kubrick’s classic of the same name.

Ali Abbasi felt Donald Trump was eerily similar to Richmond Barry in Barry Lyndon

Ali Abbasi believed that the young Trump’s character arc was very similar to Richmond Barry’s || Image by Jay Dixit, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In an interview with Indie Wire, Ali Abbasi shed light on how the young Donald Trump’s character arc mimics the story of Richmond Barry. Based in the 18th century, the Stanley Kubrick classic is a take on a man with almost Faustian desires.

For Abbasi, and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, the character was a critical inspiration. The 44-year-old said,

There were some really interesting parallels. There’s something very striking about the rise of Redmond Barry and his downfall, which is that he doesn’t have a clear ambition. He just wants to ascend. He’s a climber. And that’s the way I felt about the young Donald.

Abbasi’s opinion of a young Trump might be something that a certain part of the populace agrees with. But then again, at the end of the day, it is an artistic opinion, one that pragmatically didn’t have much effect on the real world and its happenings.

Abbasi said,

What I love about ‘Barry Lyndon’ is that instead of going into his childhood and saying his dad was tough and his mom was lovely, it’s more about the system… That’s very accurate for ‘The Apprentice’ as well. You get a sense following Donald and Roy Cohn of how you can navigate and manipulate the political and legal system to your own benefit.

There may or may not be some parallels between Kubrick’s anti-hero and Sebastian Stan’s Trump, but there is one major difference for now. Barry lost everything he had in the end. Trump’s journey is far from over.

Written by Smriti Sneh

Articles Published: 374

Smriti Sneh is a Content Writer at Fandom Wire specializing in celebrities and everything pop-culture. Being a literature research scholar, she is cashing in on her writing skills by working in the entertainment news sector - studying literary theories by day, and navigating celebrity net worth through the night. Although you can find her writing poems at any and all hours.