Once upon a time, Clint Eastwood was a right-wing Republican who churned out revenge fantasies about vigilantes who breathlessly enjoyed taking the law into their own hands. In these 'ancient' times, J. Edgar Hoover may have been one of Eastwood's heroes. As Hollywood has changed quite a bit since then, Eastwood instinctively realized that if he didn't change with the times, he could barely survive in a new politically correct world. Given the new exigencies, Eastwood could no longer ignore all of Hoover's bad behavior, including the iconic FBI director's paranoia and abject pettiness. Fortunately for Mr. Eastwood, he found the perfect politically correct screenwriter in Dustin Lance Black, who could mitigate Hoover's bad points by not only focusing on his private life as a closeted, repressed homosexual but also turning him into a tragic figure who was scarred by a manipulative and overbearing mother.
Mr. Black does far worse in depicting Hoover's public persona than his private one. In Citizen Kane-like fashion, narration and a series of flashbacks are utilized to tell Hoover's story. But unlike Kane, which is told from multiple points of view, Hoover's story comes from Hoover himself, who is seen dictating his memoirs in his office to various FBI agents during the 60s and early 70s. The flashbacks for the early period begin in the early 20s when Hoover recounts his stint as a young lawyer in the Justice Department and how he became involved in that Department's crusade against so-called radicals and subversives, initiated by Attorney General Palmer in 1919 (whose home is shown dramatically firebombed in the beginning of the film).
Black has great difficulty in dramatizing the Director's early career and we see one dubious scene of Hoover participating in a raid where radicals are eventually deported. More interesting is Hoover's obsession with details in the scene where he reveals his new card catalog system at the Library of Congress to his secretary-to-be, Helen Gandy. Black addresses Hoover's pettiness in taking all the credit for the G-men's heroics including his most egregious conduct in that regard, the demotion of Agent Purvis, responsible for the take down of John Dillinger. Black alludes to all of this but we never see the conflict with Purvis successfully dramatized. So desperate for drama, Black spends a good deal of time dissecting the Lindbergh kidnapping, which Hoover was only tangentially involved in. But even the Lindbergh scene fails to flow as Black interrupts the action by cutting back to events from the 60s. Josh Lucas is totally wrong as Lindbergh, as not only doesn't he look like him, but has no dialogue that conveys the famed aviator's dynamism.
Jeffrey Donovan looks a lot more like Robert Kennedy and manages to get the accent right but Hoover's whole conflict with the Kennedy's is reduced to Bobby telling J. Edgar in essence, "times have changed". Even more sketchy is Hoover's treatment of Martin Luther King. Because we see everything from Hoover's point of view and never meet any of the Civil Rights era characters he opposes, his egregious conduct seems muted. Eastwood must resort to cheap shots such as having Hoover listen to a salacious tape (presumably of a MLK tryst), and receiving a phone call at the same time, right after JFK is shot.
Eastwood and Black are on more solid ground in attempting to humanize Hoover by providing insight into his private life. Since little is known of what went on behind 'closed doors', a screenwriter is obligated to take dramatic license and speculate as to the events that could have unfolded. Eastwood does well in not showing Hoover as sexually aggressive and actually not initiating a sexual encounter with his long term confidante, Clyde Tolson, who he appointed his associate director at the FBI. In Dustin Lance Black's view, it was Tolson who was the sexual aggressor, and fashions a scene where Hoover rebuffs Tolson after he kisses him following Hoover's revelation that he might have had a sexual encounter with the screen actress, Dorothy Lamour. For a good part of the film, Black depicts Tolson as a toady, picking out his wardrobe at expensive clothing stores and indulging Hoover in his forays at the racetrack. Only after Tolson falls victim to a stroke does he seem to muster the courage to confront Hoover, criticizing him for his selfish behavior and paranoid outlook (Tolson's critique is illustrated in the 'correct' flashback where Hoover no longer receives credit for arresting all those criminals he claimed to have taken down personally). Tolson here is really Black's conscience speaking, and whether Tolson would have turned on Hoover in that way, I have no idea. What's missing is any sense of Tolson's intellectual life and ultimately he's little more than an entertaining stereotype of a closeted gay man.
DiCaprio does a decent job depicting a control freak Hoover minus the Kane-like gyrations at the end. Armie Hammer's Tolson is entertaining (sans the bad makeup job as the elderly Tolson) but Naomi Watts has little to do as the secretary. Judi Dench is excellent as the demented mom.
Like Orson Welles, Eastwood falters in attempting to turn Hoover into a tragic figure who didn't really like himself. Welles unfairly criticized William Randolph Hearst by speciously linking 'Rosebud' (Kane's childhood keepsake, a sled) to a miserable childhood. Hoover's mother's dress (the one he puts on after she dies) is perhaps Eastwood's 'Rosebud'--the dress also symbolizes Hoover's inability to escape his attachment to his mother and her disparagement of his sexuality which he must suppress (the mother's 'daffodil' comment is the last straw!).
But perhaps Eastwood and Black's interpretation is all wrong. Perhaps Hoover actually did like himself and didn't have an inferiority complex due to his overbearing mother. If that's the case, Hoover should be seen as far more maniacal than Eastwood lets on here. All the harm that Hoover was responsible for, can no longer be chalked up to a "bad childhood."
Mr. Black does far worse in depicting Hoover's public persona than his private one. In Citizen Kane-like fashion, narration and a series of flashbacks are utilized to tell Hoover's story. But unlike Kane, which is told from multiple points of view, Hoover's story comes from Hoover himself, who is seen dictating his memoirs in his office to various FBI agents during the 60s and early 70s. The flashbacks for the early period begin in the early 20s when Hoover recounts his stint as a young lawyer in the Justice Department and how he became involved in that Department's crusade against so-called radicals and subversives, initiated by Attorney General Palmer in 1919 (whose home is shown dramatically firebombed in the beginning of the film).
Black has great difficulty in dramatizing the Director's early career and we see one dubious scene of Hoover participating in a raid where radicals are eventually deported. More interesting is Hoover's obsession with details in the scene where he reveals his new card catalog system at the Library of Congress to his secretary-to-be, Helen Gandy. Black addresses Hoover's pettiness in taking all the credit for the G-men's heroics including his most egregious conduct in that regard, the demotion of Agent Purvis, responsible for the take down of John Dillinger. Black alludes to all of this but we never see the conflict with Purvis successfully dramatized. So desperate for drama, Black spends a good deal of time dissecting the Lindbergh kidnapping, which Hoover was only tangentially involved in. But even the Lindbergh scene fails to flow as Black interrupts the action by cutting back to events from the 60s. Josh Lucas is totally wrong as Lindbergh, as not only doesn't he look like him, but has no dialogue that conveys the famed aviator's dynamism.
Jeffrey Donovan looks a lot more like Robert Kennedy and manages to get the accent right but Hoover's whole conflict with the Kennedy's is reduced to Bobby telling J. Edgar in essence, "times have changed". Even more sketchy is Hoover's treatment of Martin Luther King. Because we see everything from Hoover's point of view and never meet any of the Civil Rights era characters he opposes, his egregious conduct seems muted. Eastwood must resort to cheap shots such as having Hoover listen to a salacious tape (presumably of a MLK tryst), and receiving a phone call at the same time, right after JFK is shot.
Eastwood and Black are on more solid ground in attempting to humanize Hoover by providing insight into his private life. Since little is known of what went on behind 'closed doors', a screenwriter is obligated to take dramatic license and speculate as to the events that could have unfolded. Eastwood does well in not showing Hoover as sexually aggressive and actually not initiating a sexual encounter with his long term confidante, Clyde Tolson, who he appointed his associate director at the FBI. In Dustin Lance Black's view, it was Tolson who was the sexual aggressor, and fashions a scene where Hoover rebuffs Tolson after he kisses him following Hoover's revelation that he might have had a sexual encounter with the screen actress, Dorothy Lamour. For a good part of the film, Black depicts Tolson as a toady, picking out his wardrobe at expensive clothing stores and indulging Hoover in his forays at the racetrack. Only after Tolson falls victim to a stroke does he seem to muster the courage to confront Hoover, criticizing him for his selfish behavior and paranoid outlook (Tolson's critique is illustrated in the 'correct' flashback where Hoover no longer receives credit for arresting all those criminals he claimed to have taken down personally). Tolson here is really Black's conscience speaking, and whether Tolson would have turned on Hoover in that way, I have no idea. What's missing is any sense of Tolson's intellectual life and ultimately he's little more than an entertaining stereotype of a closeted gay man.
DiCaprio does a decent job depicting a control freak Hoover minus the Kane-like gyrations at the end. Armie Hammer's Tolson is entertaining (sans the bad makeup job as the elderly Tolson) but Naomi Watts has little to do as the secretary. Judi Dench is excellent as the demented mom.
Like Orson Welles, Eastwood falters in attempting to turn Hoover into a tragic figure who didn't really like himself. Welles unfairly criticized William Randolph Hearst by speciously linking 'Rosebud' (Kane's childhood keepsake, a sled) to a miserable childhood. Hoover's mother's dress (the one he puts on after she dies) is perhaps Eastwood's 'Rosebud'--the dress also symbolizes Hoover's inability to escape his attachment to his mother and her disparagement of his sexuality which he must suppress (the mother's 'daffodil' comment is the last straw!).
But perhaps Eastwood and Black's interpretation is all wrong. Perhaps Hoover actually did like himself and didn't have an inferiority complex due to his overbearing mother. If that's the case, Hoover should be seen as far more maniacal than Eastwood lets on here. All the harm that Hoover was responsible for, can no longer be chalked up to a "bad childhood."