I was looking forward to seeing the movie J. EDGAR. I was never a fan of the man it was about, but with all the information brought out over the years about the secretive man who managed to create perhaps the most effective law enforcement organization ever I thought there should be a great story to be told here. There still is but this isn't the movie that does so.
For those who don't know the name, J. Edgar Hoover was the creator of and the driving force behind the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for decades. Not only was he the man responsible for putting the bureau together, he ran it when America was under attack by subversives, during the depression when criminals seemed more famous than those tracking them and later on when the FBI took on the Mafia at the behest of Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
The film takes us through the various stages of Hoover's life from his early start at working for the Attorney General when the first outcry of radical attacks came. Still living at home Hoover was heavily influenced by his mother (played here by Judi Dench). It was her desire to see her son reinvigorate the Hoover name once again in Washington and he eventually did so.
We watch as Hoover moves back and forth through time as he narrates passages of his memoirs to a subordinate taking us to those times when events actually happened. Along with these memories we get a chance to see Hoover for who he was as well, especially the man who witnessed so many politicians attempt to use the bureau for political reasons that he established a series if private files he kept on any and all people in power to use against them should they stand in his way. Had that been the main force behind the story here it would have been much more interesting.
Instead writer Dustin Lance Black and director Clint Eastwood seem more interested in the seedier side of Hoover's life. In doing so the story of the man behind the FBI becomes a love story more than anything else. And that love story revolves around the tabloid fed stories about Hoover being gay and involved with his trusted friend Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). There is little doubt according to some that they were involved but why make that the focus especially when stating that it wasn't?
The story that develops here does come through in the idea that Hoover became obsessed with his ideas that Communists were attempting to subvert the country that he loved; that more than anything portrays him as the patriot that he was, a man who loved his country above all else. But rather than show that yes, there were subversives who attempted to overthrow this country that were caught, it appears there were more civil rights violations going on that deserved more coverage. Granted Hoover was wrong on many of these occasions, but to display one side without the other seems disingenuous.
We never see scenes of Hoover and Tolson in locked embrace or in bed together but much is made of their affection for one another. There is one brief heated kiss but that's all. Perhaps that was a gesture towards the fact that other than what went on behind closed doors was only known for certain to Hoover and Tolson themselves. But the longing for one another takes up more than half of the screen time seen here and for me made the picture more boring than anything.
Leonardo DiCaprio does a fantastic job portraying Hoover throughout the various ages seen here. While some would credit the make up artists for much of that portrayal, more goes into it than that. How a man walks, how he talks, how he carries himself in various stages of life bring out the character being portrayed and DiCaprio displays that here.
Hoover was an interesting man. His change from law defender to law breaker is interesting. His efforts to create the best crime fighting organization is interesting. His love life is not. I have yet to fathom the desire of Hollywood and their goal to dismantle each and every hero we have in our past. They seem determined to talk less about the accomplishments made by everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Hoover and more inclined to talk about the salacious details of their lives. Perhaps they've become influenced by the commercials that once ran for THE ENQUIRER that said "Enquiring minds want to know". I for one do not. I'm much more appreciative of movies that cover all bases and spend less time on dirt.
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