J Edgar

WOULDN'T life be that much better if you could simply 'make a file' on your suspected enemies?

Infidelities, indiscretions and general confidentialities could be quietly documented then brought to the fore should the need for blackmail arise.

Ill-famed FBI founding director John Edgar Hoover - one of the most controversial figures of the 20th Century - is renowned for his “secret files” on Washington's most powerful leaders, securing his place as top dog of the bureau long after his due-date (from 1935 until his death in 1972).

Destroyed directly after his passing, they also kept track on the mafia to Martin Luther King and famously contained surveillance material on Eleanor Roosevelt's alleged lesbian lovers and covert meetings between Robert Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

Ironically, the paranoid bully held his own potentially damning skeleton in the closet - his (supposed) hidden homosexuality - a topic so prevalent in Clint Eastwood's J Edgar, the biopic resembles a romance spotlighting the relationship between Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his fetching assistant Clyde Tolson (The Social Network's Armie Hammer).

I would have preferred an intense drama packed with paranoia and crime, and a closer inspection of Hoover's groundbreaking introduction of fingerprinting and forensic science.

Eastwood does well, however, illustrating the birth of the FBI and society's distrust of the bureau in those early days.

J Edgar (M)
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench
Rating: Three stars
Screening: Now
Reviewed by: Sara Fitzpatrick

What everyone else is thinking

glenyse hebbard

02/02/2012

This would be a most interesting film to see as it reflects the history of the US and the FBI thru a very difficult period from prohibition to the days of the communist activity and the setting up of personal resumes including major Mafia heads.