Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 10, 2020

With tongue perhaps only slightly in cheek, I might recommend for those of you dealing with a current global health crisis and who therefore may have a little (a lot of?) time on your hands and not many ways to spend that time, you might consider going down the rabbit hole of internet musings on the Illuminati. Trust me — the next few weeks (at a minimum) will be taken care of. If, however, you do have things to do and would simply like a salient example of what a member of the Illuminati might be like, you could probably do worse than spending an hour and a half or so watching Where’s My Roy Cohn?, a fascinating if often disturbing account of one of the most notorious figures in the American public sphere of the 20th century. The Illuminati have (in?)famously been alleged to have controlled all sorts of world affairs, pulling strings like veritable puppet masters, including making sure the “right” people attain power. Aside from the fact that the Illuminati supposedly worked in secret (not very well kept, evidently), that description would be entirely apt for Cohn, a man who erupted far from secretly onto the American public square during the spy trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and who then really became the stuff of legend during the McCarthy hearings. Though those hearings ultimately led to Cohn’s disgrace and ostensible “retreat” into private life, they did nothing to blunt Cohn’s influence on the body politic, as Where’s My Roy Cohn? at times makes frighteningly clear.

Aside from one brief and kind of odd late detour that reverts the story back to 1927 (the year of Cohn’s birth), Where’s My Roy Cohn? takes a chronological look at Cohn’s life, albeit jumping to Cohn’s involvement with the Rosenberg Trial as its first major section. There’s some passing information given courtesy of some of Cohn’s cousins (all of whom seem to have pretty jaundiced opinions of their erstwhile relative) about Cohn’s incredible extended family, which included a bunch of notables in American life, including the impresario heading the Lionel Train toy company and (just for good measure) the inventor of Q-Tips! Roy himself came from a somewhat dysfunctional family, and it’s actually outright alleged in this piece that Roy’s father married Roy’s mother only because his mother’s family was able to arrange a judgeship for his father as “payment” for the marriage to a woman considered almost preternaturally ugly and without many redeeming social graces to counter that perceived unpleasant appearance.

There’s some almost Freudian analysis offered by various Cohn cousins about the family dynamic of Roy’s boyhood, including the fact that he was an only child and doted on by an obsessive mother. The imperious figure of Dora Cohn returns more than a couple of times throughout Roy’s life, and at least one family member claims that Roy’s seeming complete lack of empathy came directly from Dora.

The perceived lack of empathy is probably pretty much on display in this piece from the get go, with the chilling stories of the Rosenbergs and then the McCarthy hearings giving this piece a pretty significant one two punch. But there’s a perhaps little remembered sidebar to the McCarthy stuff that directly impacts the Cohn tale, and which in some ways presages a whole lot of the following contents which deal with Cohn as a (mostly) closeted gay guy. That connection to the McCarthy hearings came courtesy of a “friend” of Cohn’s named G. David Schine*, whom this documentary hints but never outright states was a relationship that may have been more than merely friendship. Schine was also on the McCarthy staff (at Cohn's behest), and there's even some passing references here that some suspected that McCarthy was in a relationship with either Schine or Cohn, or even both of them.

While many people remember Joseph Welch’s ringing damnation of Joseph McCarthy (“have you no shame?”), only real trivia fans may know that that statement was delivered in a second round of McCarthy hearings about supposed Communist infiltration in the Army that were brought at least in part because Cohn had tried pretty desperately to pull strings to get the recently drafted Schine easy duty in the Army. It’s an absolutely fascinating early insight into Cohn, because (as one talking head states) the usually ultra-rational, even reptilian, Cohn lost his head over very little in his life, but Schine was an obvious exception.

There is some absolutely incredible archival audio and video woven into this piece interstitially with equally illuminating contemporary interviews with a host of people, including a handful of Cohn cousins (all of whom are eloquently insightful and memorable in their own right), as well as luminaries like gossip columnist Liz Smith. But it's probably some of the archival video and audio of Cohn that make Where's My Roy Cohn? so effective. There's some really riveting audio from an interview Ken Auletta did to prepare for an Esquire profile on Cohn, and it captures Cohn in a somewhat less combative, and even at times near ruminative (but still feisty), frame of mind. Auletta brings up all sorts of "touchy" subjects (including whether Cohn was gay, and whether he had inadvertently killed a deckhand in an alleged arson for insurance money scheme that sank Cohn's yacht), as do some other interviewers included on the archival video side of things. That includes what appear to be two separate 60 Minutes segments, one with Morley Safer and one with Mike Wallace (who also gets into the "gay thing", pointedly with regard to AIDS, which Cohn reportedly died from).

The very title of this documentary obviously points to how influential Cohn has been even long after his death, and in that regard, while this documentary perhaps surprisingly doesn't really get into the context of that quote, it has a lot of behind the scenes information about Cohn and Donald Trump, much of it from Cohn's own lips. Roger Stone is also on hand talking about a man he freely acknowledges was a mentor of his.

Some have accused Cohn of being sociopathic, but I think this documentary actually paints a picture of a pretty emotionally conflicted but incredibly smart individual who learned going on the offense means rarely having to play defense. As riveting as Cohn himself is in this piece, the entire family's history is near operatic and gives this documentary added context and interest. In fact, the documentary is adept at doling out a rather arresting variety of tidbits about the Cohns, and for some a sidebar anecdote about how Dora answered the age old Seder question "how is tonight different from all other nights" at one Passover celebration might be worth the price of admission alone.

*Schine deserves a documentary of his own, in my not so humble opinion. I encourage those interested to do a little internet sleuthing about him, but among his many accomplishments was being an early proponent for something called high definition television.

Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Where's My Roy Cohn? is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (often) in 1.78:1 (as can be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, some archival stills and videos can be in narrower aspect ratios). This is another documentary cobbled together from a wide variety of sources, sometimes with pretty large variances in quality, and as such there's an expectedly heterogeneous appearance at times. Some of the older archival material, notably some of the stills, is in great condition, while some of the older video is pretty ragged looking at times. The contemporary interview material looks sharpest and best detailed, as should probably be expected, but the palette is kind of tamped down in many of the new sequences.

Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Where's My Roy Cohn? features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that frankly struggles to provide a ton of surround material, but which sounds absolutely fine on its own merits. Occasional sound effects can dot the side and rear channels, but the bulk of this enterprise is either voiceover or on screen interviews, and as such a lot of the mix is placed front and center. Fidelity is fine, and I noticed no problems whatsoever with regard to any damage or other distractions.

Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director and Producer Commentary features director Matt Tyrnauer and producer Marie Brenner.


• Q & A with Director Matt Tyrnauer (1080p; 50:57)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:02)

Where's My Roy Cohn? Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My hunch is that with regard to its "warts and all" aspects, Where's My Roy Cohn? will probably be preaching to choir, so to speak, in terms of general political persuasion. That said, even some proud wearers of MAGA hats may find this piece rather interesting, since the connections between Cohn and the 45th President are quite profound, as both Cohn and Roger Stone (among others) get into in the documentary. Technical merits are generally solid, and Where's My Roy Cohn? comes Recommended.