Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn is a documentary film which premiered in 2019. The topic is the life and career of the famous or infamous American lawyer and political consultant Roy Cohn (1927-1986).
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Ivy Meeropol
** Production company: HBO
** Run time: 98 minutes
Director Ivy Meeropol has a very personal connection with the story of Roy Cohn. She is the grandchild of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were arrested in 1950 and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage.
According to the prosecution, the couple had acquired secret information about how to make a nuclear bomb and they had handed this information over to agents of the USSR.
In 1951, the couple was tried in a court of law and found guilty. The sentence for both was death by electrocution. In 1953, the sentences were carried out. Julius and Ethel were both executed in the electric chair.
Who was one of the four prosecutors of the case?
Roy Cohn!
The couple had two young sons when they were arrested. The older son Michael was born in 1943; he was only seven when his parents were arrested and 10 when they were killed. The younger son Robert was born in 1947; he was only three when his parents were arrested and six when they were killed.
Since the parents were arrested and later executed by the state, the two boys were placed with family and friends for a while.
A permanent solution was found when they were adopted by Abel and Anne Meeropol.
Abel Meeropol (1903-1986) was a poet and a musician. In 1937 he wrote the song Strange Fruit which was recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The song was highly controversial, because it is about the lynching of Black Americans in the US.
When Michael and Robert were adopted by Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne, they assumed the same family name. Michael Rosenberg became Michael Meeropol. His daughter Ivy Meeropol was born in 1968.
This historical background is the reason why the story of Roy Cohn has a very personal connection with Ivy Meeropol.
Several persons (including the director) are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):
** Cindy Adams – gossip columnist – New York Post
** Peter L. Allen – Roy Cohn’s driver
** Alan Dershowitz - lawyer
** Ethan Getho – gay rights activist
** Tony Kushner – American playwright – author of the play Angels in America (1991)
** David Lloyd Marcus – Roy Cohn’s cousin
** Ivy Meeropol – filmmaker
** Michael Meeropol – retired professor of economics - son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – father of Ivy Meeropol
** John Klotz - lawyer
** Peter Manso (1940-2021) – journalist – author of several books
** Lois Romano – journalist – Washington Post
** John Waters – filmmaker
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads. Archive footage allows us to meet Roy Cohn himself.
In this film, we follow the life and career of Roy Cohn from the beginning in 1927 to the end in 1986. Here is a summary in five basic points:
# 1. Roy Cohn was a lawyer.
# 2. In the 1950s, he was one of four prosecutors in the case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in New York. After winning a high-profile case such as this, Cohn was suddenly an important lawyer and an influential person.
# 3. In the 1950s, he was chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy in Washington, DC. While McCarthy lost his power and influence in 1954 and died in 1957, Cohn moved back to New York where he was able to reinvent himself as a power broker and an influential political consultant.
# 4. In the 1960s, he was a political consultant working for different clients.
# 5. In the 1970s, he was a mentor of Donald Trump who was at the time a young businessman with high ambitions.
What about the title of the film?
What does it mean?
An explanation appears ca. 21 minutes into the film. The title is a reference to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt which was started in the late 1980s.
A quilt (also known as a panel) was made for each American victim of AIDS. In 1987, all quilts (or panels) made so far were laid out in a public area in Washington, DC. A large area was covered by 1,920 panels.
When Ivy and her father Michael visited this unusual open-air exhibition, the very first panel they saw had the inscription:
Bully. Coward. Victim.
This panel was dedicated to Roy Cohn. The three words cover three phases of his life:
# 1. At first, he was a bully = When he was a public prosecutor in New York and when he worked with Joseph McCarthy in Washington, DC.
# 2. Later, he was a coward = When he was a power broker in New York and he was hiding the fact that he was gay.
# 3. At the end of his life, he was a victim = When he refused to admit that he was dying from AIDS.
For Ivy and Michael, it was a remarkable fact that the very first panel they saw was a panel dedicated to Roy Cohn; the man who had played such an important role in the life of their family.
Almost 2,000 panels were laid out in this area. Ivy and Michael entered the exhibition from the side, and the very first panel they saw was a panel dedicated to Roy Cohn!
Ivy could not forget this moment. This is why she decided to use the three words written on the quilt as the title of her film about Roy Cohn.
What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:
65 percent = Meta
68 percent = IMDb
56 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (audience)
74 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (critics)
On Amazon there are 21 global ratings and 15 global reviews. The average rating is 3.9 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 78 percent.
The reviews on Amazon deserve a comment. Some people love the film, while others hate it.
62 percent are positive: they offer 4 or 5 stars. 23 percent are negative: they offer only 1 or 2 stars. Only 15 percent are in the middle: they offer 3 stars.
The negative reviews focus on the bias of the director. They do not like it. They say the film has too much bias and that it is short on facts.
The positive reviews do not complain about the bias which is obvious and no secret. They say it is a great film which offers important information about the topic.
If you ask me, all these average ratings are too low. I agree with the positive reviews on Amazon.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter’s Story is a documentary film which premiered in 2004. It is the first film made by Ivy Meeropol. The topic is the case of her grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed in 1953.
PS # 2. It is obvious to compare Bully. Coward. Victim with another recent film about the famous or infamous lawyer: Where’s My Roy Cohn? which also premiered in 2019.
The latter film is good, but not great. Bully. Coward. Victim is great, because the director has a personal commitment to the topic and because she goes deeper into the case.
PS # 3. Billie is a documentary film which premiered in 2019. The United States Vs. Billie Holiday is a historical drama which premiered in 2021. Both films cover the life and career of Billie Holiday. In both films, the controversial song Strange Fruit is mentioned several times and the importance of the song is explained.
REFERENCES
** Richard Harris,
“Worse than murder: The lawyers and the Rosenbergs”
Grand Street, vol. 3, no. 2 (1984), pages 159-173
** Gabrielle Bruney,
“Roy Cohn condemned the Rosenbergs as Soviet spies. Their granddaughter just made a film about him”
Esquire, 18 June 2018
** Becky Little,
“Roy Cohn: From ruthless Red Scare prosecutor to Donald Trump’s mentor”
History, 6 March 2019 (updated 12 March 2019)
** Matt Fagerholm
Review of Bully. Coward. Victim
The Roger Ebert Website, 18 June 2020
Matt Fagerholm offers 3.5 of 4 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 87 percent.
*****
Bully. Coward. Victim.
The panel dedicated to Roy Cohn
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilts in
Washington, DC
The panels in Washington, DC,
seen from above
*****
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