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Wednesday, 30 November 2011 11:54

J. Edgar - Some History about his story...

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Being a guy in my late thirties puts me in the prime demo (but almost about to fall off it) of what studios are after these days, when it comes to ticket buyers.

But being an American history buff, bumps me in the 50 - 60 year old range (according to the studios demo for historical dramas). And the funny thing is, they're right. I was probably the only guy in the theater   with all my hair,  able to do 20 push ups  without getting dizzy. 

Sad, but again, most "yuths" these days are too busy with other stuff than to be in a movie theater on a Sunday night and particularly watching a movie about the founder of the F.B.I. 

Either I need a girlfriend, or divorce myself from the love of history.

So back to the movie. The only thing I knew about John Edgar Hoover was that he was the crossdressing founder of the the F.B.I. and a big pain in the ass to most of Washington D.C., or like Nixon said in the movie:  "that little, C*#@s%^$#! "

The movie is a miss mash of interesting points and it goes back and forth in history with the time tested and sometimes overplayed... "I'll tell you my version of the story", which it uses as a plot engine, by Hoover, now an old man, who is dictating his memoirs to an young agent.

Of course here's the tricky part about doing a historical drama about one of the most famous closeted-gay men in America. Do you go full blown gay? Or do you cover it up and do a polish of history? Or can you do both?.

Exactly how does a smart, by Hollywood and political standards, director like Clint Eastwood tackle this issue?  First you get an acclaimed gay screenwriter ( Dustin Lance Black - winner of the Oscar for MILK) and have him put his "sensitivities" in the script. Then you dial it back... A LOT. Historically it's pretty interesting and well-researched. This is why young people should know more about history because, Occupy Wall street, L.A. , etc, is not a new concept and when people get upset crazy things start to happen.

Who knew over 20 bombs went off in Washington D.C. in 1920? Comunist radicals? Wow, they were a ballsy bunch... That was "their" war on terror in those days and terrorists were labeled "radicals" and they we all "homegrown".

Seeing this travesty a young J. Edgar Hoover uses this civilian unrest to get his agenda of making a prime crime investigations unit and get it sanctioned by the government. In those days authorities couldn't hold people without  proper cause and proof and federal agents couldn't carry guns!

But again the public's "fear" gave Hoover's able and manipulative hands ways to move legislation in his favor and "protect" the general public. He did great things like create the first crime labs and proper classification of fingerprints but he was also a vary paranoid person and his zest for keeping "personal files" on everyone in town helped him run the agency for many years.

DiCaprio's performance is a mixed bag; he's certainly getting better but sometimes the make-up was a bit distracting (even though I'm sure it was the best money can buy). For me he didn't nail it completely but again I'm probably the only person who youtube'd Hoover's speeches after the movie.

Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson (Hoover's right hand man at the agency and alleged lover) was also hard for me to take in. He at times seemed like a grinning 7 foot kid that just moved around Hoover and with no real depth to the character until the last scenes. Again, I didn't read the script nor was on set so maybe the director reigned back his performance a bit. 

Dame Judith Dench played Hoover's mother and seemed to be his real person of affection. Dench does show her disdain for gays to Hoover and lets him know about it but Edgar just tries to appease her and move on. Hoover is portraid as a stubborn, very inteligent but very insecure man who was constantly looking over his shoulder.  As he says in the movie, the only person he could trust was his mother.

The movie goes from the origins of the Bureau, to the men selected for proper morals and attire, to the Lindenberg baby kipnapping and trial, the fight against the mob, and some funny moments of how Hoover goes to Bobby Kennedy to tell him his Brother (the president) was taped doing "the nasty" with a possible Russian spy - until the time he's asked to resign and Hoover's death.The production is first rate as Eastwood is used to delivering these days.

All in all a good effort for a "swiping view" of the man and the F.B.I. But at the end we find out that it was all just self promotion for Hoover, who was more concerned about being a part of history than making it. His memoirs, as shown in the movie, are full of lies and his version of the stories sheds an odd light on the character of the man. Sometimes when people don't know their history, they tend to repeat the mistakes made in the past. Hoover by putting HIS story before history was trying to avoid this.

Maybe today's young people can learn something about remembering history when in 20 years they get into bad mortagages and have to sell their hover crafts and jetpacks at a loss. We can say... didn't you see this coming...  like it happened in the late 2000's??

History is just a revolving door of people, where the places fundamentally remain the same. If you don't believe me go to D.C. today -  it's the same buildings, the same schemes, only the faces have changed.

And something tells me that J. Edgar would be just fine with that.

Read 1880 times Last modified on Wednesday, 05 August 2015 16:16
Published in Front Page Item - old
Mark Sevi

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