Themes: Social Injustice, Political Corruption, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: James Woods, Joe Don Baker, Lee Grant, Joseph Bologna, Ed Flanders
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 112 minutes
Plot
Frank Pierson's made-for-cable adaptation of Nicholas VonHoffman's biography, Citizen Cohn stars James Woods as the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Cohn lies in a New York hospital dying of AIDS. In the 1940s and early '50s, Cohn became one of the most powerful men in the country after becoming an important associate of Senator Joseph McCarthy (Joe Don Baker) and his Communist witch hunts. The film recounts those turbulent times and features portrayals of such real-life figures as J. Edgar Hoover (Pat Hingle), Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forrest), Cardinal Spellman (Daniel Benzali), and Walter Winchell (Joseph Bologna). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Review
Told in flashbacks as the powerful lawyer and chief assistant to Senator Joseph McCarthy lies in a hospital bed dying of AIDS, Citizen Cohn covers brilliant lawyer Roy Cohn's rise to power. Instinctively gifted with a grasp of the ways in which innuendo, half-truth, and lies could be used to destroy political opponents while advancing his career, the brutally efficient Cohn was far more frightening than the foolish, often drunken senator, who was supposedly his patron. With the passing of the red-baiting era, Cohn transforms himself into one of the most powerful attorneys in the country, expanding his vile bag of legal tricks to represent a motley crew of wealthy reprobates including more than a few mobsters. The film also touches on Cohn's carefully concealed homosexuality, a predilection which -- during that benighted era -- could have hurt his tough-guy image and his business. One of the film's most amusingly ironic scenes is a small dinner attended only by J. Edgar Hoover, Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York, and Cohn, three staunchly conservative anti-communists who publicly deplored homosexuality, although two were gay and the other a cross-dresser. As Cohn's borderline legal maneuvers begin to fun afoul of the law and AIDS slowly eats away at his body, one almost feels a twinge of sympathy for the man. James Woods has never been more brilliant in a part that seems to have been written specifically for him. To see him weave his way through the contorted labyrinth of this monster's mind is a privilege. The huge and talented cast includes standout work by Joe Don Baker as McCarthy, the blacklisted Lee Grant as Cohn's possessive mother, and Joseph Bologna as Walter Winchell. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Pat Hingle - Hoover; Chuck Aber - Senator McClellan; Lamont Arnold - Male Nurse; Steve Aronson - Judge Kaufman; Daniel Benzali - Cardinal Spellman; Bernard Canepari - New York Judge; Sam Coppola - Carmine Gelanti; David Earle - Chauffeur; Tovah Feldshuh - Iva Schlesinger; John Finn - Senator Charles Potter; Frederic Forrest - Hammett; Frances Foster - First Annie Lee Moss; Allen Garfield - Abe Feller; David Marshall Grant - Robert F. Kennedy; Fanni Green - Juror; Joe Grifasi - Gerald Walpin; Karen Ludwig - Ethel Rosenberg; John McMartin - Older Doctor; Larry John Meyers - Frank Raichle; Zachary Mott - Sam Garfield; Novella Nelson - Second Annie Lee Moss; Jeffrey Nordling - G. David Schine; Joseph Scorsiani - Milo Gandini; Robin Thomas - Reporter; Daniel Von Bargen - Clyde Tolson; Don Wadsworth - English Reporter #2; Rick Warner - Robert Morgenthau Jr.; Fritz Weaver - Senator Everett Dirksen; Peter Maloney - Ray Kaplan; John Seitz - Army Secretary Stevens; Josef Sommer - Albert Cohn; Lance Lewman - Young Doctor; Patricia Dunnock - Female Nurse; Kate Young - French Reporter; Daniel Hugh Kelly - Congressman Neil Gallagher
Credit
Gary Kosko - Art Director, Stephen Marsh - Costume Designer, Frank Pierson - Director, Peter Zinner - Editor, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), Matthew Mungle - Makeup, Paul Elliott - Cinematographer, Nicholas VonHoffman - Book Author
