The most dangerous man with the power of the most dangerous country behind him ought to have a most dangerous biography, oughtn’t he? Sorry, no.
J. Edgar Hoover essentially invented the FBI. The good that it does; the power it wields; the effectiveness as a law enforcement tool can all be traced to a short passionate man who hated Bolsheviks. His passion comes across here, more-or-less. The reasons for his passion? Less.
On the good side, Hoover revolutionized criminal identification science; the best scenes in the film revolve around the details of the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping. This is Clint Eastwood at his directorial best – he doesn’t spell it out for us, per se, but he points out over jurisdictional in-fighting numerous evidentiary details ignored by the local police– things like fingerprints, footprints, handwriting and homemade devices involved in the crime, the tools that make you, the savvy CSI viewer say, “I could have solved this one.” On the bad side, Hoover and Senator Joe McCarthy gave the United States an ugly legacy of hatred and scapegoating. Both legacies live to this day.
So who was J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio), this man of legend? Kind of a dullard. He didn’t dance; he wasn’t good socially; he had few friends; it’s possible he never had sex with another person in his life. He managed to create the most boring relationship in human history, that with his #2 at the agency, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). There’s more crackle in the mother (Judi Dench)/son Hoover moments than in J. Edgar’s Hammertime. J. Edgar is unclear on the true nature of Hoover’s hetero-? Homo-? Bi-? Octo-? Lacto-? And eventual a-sexuality. If I understand this correctly, J. Edgar Hoover was a dictatorial, hateful, sex-less, mama’s boy, i.e. the ideal man for leading our national paranoia.
He also had bad make-up. The rubber old-man masks in this film are awful. “Say Clyde, I get that lack of emotion in your face due to the stroke; now how do you explain the pre-stroke stoicism?”
Personally, I’ve never seen a better pro-CGI statement.
I’d love to make this statement about J. Edgar Hoover: “How awful it must be to live this way. Fueled only by hate; never an indulgent moment or a sympathetic ear. This personality spans generations as well – you could point to a handful of modern angry political personalities who seemed steeped in their rhetoric of hate.”
But I can’t really make that statement; J. Edgar Hoover may have been passionate and angry, but Eastwood mostly pictures him as a boastful bore.
Rated R, 135 Minutes
D: Clint Eastwood
W: Dustin Lance Black
Genre: Forbidden history
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: McCarthy-ites
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Those who need steak with the sizzle
