Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn offers an unflinching look at the infamous attorney who prosecuted Director Ivy Meeropol’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and later argued persuasively for their execution in what became known as the “atomic spies” case.  The film examines Cohn’s life as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the late 1950s and then through the 1980s when he became a darling of the Reagan White House, a rabid anti-homosexuality activist and political mentor to Donald J. Trump before dying from AIDS in 1986.

The film draws from extensive, newly unearthed archival material, recorded at the height of Cohn’s career as a power broker in the rough and tumble world of New York City business and politics.  

Watch on MAX