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2011, 11-15; writeup completed 11-19:
Review of film: “J. EDGAR”
This 137-minute R-rated film was directed by CLINT EASTWOOD, based on TRUE events in the life of an important American historical figure in the 20th Century...
... It was written by Dustin Lance Black, who won a screenwriting OSCAR for the 2008 film “MILK”...
... As the movie starts, we are introduced to a young man named J. Edgar Hoover (LEONARDO DI CAPRIO), who’s an employee in the U.S. Justice Department office in Washington, D.C....
( ... He’d worked there since 1917, when he joined seemingly to help bring in money for his FAMILY: that was done ostensibly because his 61-year-old father was forced to leave his government clerk job (with NO PENSION) because of having a mental illness... )
... The time (as the film begins) is 1919. World War I had recently ended in Europe, & Communists had risen to control the government in RUSSIA. Communists had also tried to gain political power in other countries, such as the U.S....
... According to a “voice-over” by Leonardo, suspected anarchist communists have tried using BOMBS to attack various locations in the U.S., including at the home of the man he WORKS for at the Justice Department...
... Feeling that the nation was in imminent danger from such people, we see Leonardo work tirelessly to try to root-out & ATTACK various supposed Communists & “hangers-on” around the country...
... Leo lives with his MOTHER, Anna Marie (JUDI DENCH). She’s a kind of “Victorian Age” woman, wanting to keep up a sort of “high society” air about her & the “position” of her family, especially regarding her son (Leo) who she thinks is destined for “greatness”...
... She at times demonstrates strong condescensions in certain of her attitudes, & Leo is consistently very subservient & deferential to her wishes...
... At work, usually un-social Leo decides to ask out a sort of secretary named Helen Gandy (NAOMI WATTS)...
... He takes her to (I think it was) the Library of Congress, & shows how HE personally devised a system of CARDS clearly showing precisely WHERE specific documents can be found (which could not be easily done previously)...
... PROUD of what he’d accomplished, Leo further demonstrates how he wants the law enforcement agencies around the country to get FINGERPRINTS from people charged with crimes, & use that as a comparatively fast & convenient way to “TRACK DOWN” & prosecute those who’ve really perpetrated misdeeds...
... Not having an idea of “proper” ways to act socially, on just their 3rd quasi-“date”, Leo suddenly asks Naomi to MARRY him! She’s very taken aback, & says, while she appreciated his gesture, she simply was NOT “interested” in him that way...
... But, tho Leo is crestfallen from Naomi’s response, he realizes he can TRUST her as a person, & keeps her as his personal secretary all THRU his career after he (in 1921) moved from being the Assistant to being the DIRECTOR of what was called the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) department...
... We see Leo has become nearly “PARANOID” in seeking-out “Communists” or other people he felt were involved in the the 1919 ATTACKS on government people around the country...
... As Director, he was extremely “fussy” about what men were “GOOD” enough to be FBI agents, insisting (as shown in lectures to recruits) that they needed to dress “properly” (namely, very conservatively) & have no facial hair, how they were required to “CONDUCT” themselves, etc....
... At one point, Leo is at a bar & introduced by some associates to a handsome young lawyer named Clyde Tolson (ARMIE HAMMER)...
... He quickly takes a “LIKING” to well-dressed & amiable Armie, & speedily promotes him to be his “# 2 man” (Associate Director) in the FBI [nominally in charge of personnel and discipline]...
... Armie is thrilled with the appointment (and we see he retained that position as long as Leo was around)...
... In time, Armie clearly becomes very emotionally “ATTACHED” to Leo & vice versa, as shown by Leo cautiously holding HANDS with him in the back seat of a car...
... But, Leo normally acts especially “circumspect” when around Armie in “public” areas-- partly because any “overt” actions on his part would’ve met with huge “DISAPPROVAL” during such a time period...
... And, he especially acts that way because of how his beloved mother JUDI (who he lived with into his 40’s) had made a special point to state to him that, she’d prefer that any son of hers be “DEAD” rather than be a “DAFFODIL” (which was her term for gay)...
( ... Later in the film, we see Leo & Armie argue & FIGHT about the “situation” of their relationship...
( ... During that fight, Armie frustratedly says, “You're a scared, HEARTLESS, HORRIBLE little man!"... )
... Leo keeps “pushing” Congress to keep giving his FBI more & more POWER & MONEY to operate, & is “rankled” when he’s asked to give good reasons & “JUSTIFY” his requests...
... In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became one of the country’s biggest CELEBRITIES when he became the first person to fly solo across the ATLANTIC... On March 1, 1932, someone KIDNAPPED Lindbergh’s 20-month old son from his home in New Jersey...
... As shown in this movie, Leo tries to get the FBI involved in FINDING the baby & kidnapper-- but keeps being thwarted by the “LOCAL” police authorities, & by Lindbergh himself (JOSH LUCAS) who keeps trusting people Leo feels may be “involved” in the crime...
... Leo gets extremely FRUSTRATED by his lack of “control” in the matter, & keeps trying to get more powers to handle things as HE wants...
... To increase his own publicity, Leo works to “push” the prosecution of a certain German-born man named Bruno Hauptmann (DAMON HERRIMAN) for the Lindbergh kidnapping & the murder of his son, even tho direct “evidence” seemed to be highly SPECULATIVE or downright lacking...
... Leo is INFURIATED by the way a Senator McKellar (MICHAEL O’NEILL) keeps QUESTIONING him in a committee hearing, such as his saying, “What exactly are your QUALIFICATIONS for the office you hold?!”...
... Disliking how it’s pointed out that he himself had never personally been directly involved in the CAPTURE of any criminals, Leo starts to engage in what we today would call a “MEDIA campaign”, trying to put HIMSELF in the “FOREFRONT” of actions against offenders (like apprehending them in person)...
... In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was expected to be involved in a PRESIDENTIAL race. Wanting to increase his own “power” all the more, Leo engages in a bunch of “QUESTIONABLE” activities to try to get “dirt” on Franklin’s wife ELEANOR...
... To keep “CONTROL” of the dubious things he does, Leo creates “CONFIDENTIAL” files (such as on Eleanor)...
... And, he makes sure he instructs Naomi to keep a “second” set of such files for his “PERSONAL” archives (in case there’s something he needs to use to “PROTECT” himself or the like)...
... As Leo later says in “JUSTIFYING” his actions like that, “Sometimes you need to BEND the rules, to keep your country SAFE...” (Such a convenient “BUSH-ite” type position!...)
... In 1934, the FBI – after a long CHASE -- was finally able to capture well-known criminal John Dillinger in Chicago [as seen in the movie “PUBLIC ENEMIES”]...
... You might think that Leo would be pleased at all the positive PUBLICITY that event generated for the FBI...
... But, instead, he was incensed, because the main media hype gave the credit for Dillinger’s capture & killing to an FBI agent named Alvin KARPIS (played by MANU INTIRAYMI -- who was teenager Icheb in “STAR TREK: VOYAGER”)!...
... Leo kept demanding that Karpis be DEMOTED for in-effect “upstaging” him (tho that was never Karpis’ “intent” in any way)... Here we again see another deep “defect” in the personality of Leo’s character...
... Leo kept working to make the “G-Man” (representing “his” FBI) a highly respected & “TALKED”-about figure...
... When his mother Judi DIED [in 1938], we see Leo is DEVASTATED by the event (as observed in a scene that may strike certain people as being overwrought or “overdone”)...
... Thru the nearly 50 years he was in power under numerous Presidents, Leo’s character works to keep gathering loads of “CONFIDENTIAL” private information about anyone HE decided was “untrustworthy”...
... That meant he secretly gathered info -- & at times mere unsubstantiated GOSSIP (including about SEX lives of people) – concerning such people as Supreme Court justices, SENATORS, political organizers, movie stars, etc...
... Under the direction of Leo’s character, we now know “his” people regularly engaged in illegal WIRETAPS, burglaries, planting evidence & spreading FALSE rumors, & possibly the murders of certain people considered “undesirables”...
... In the 1950’s, we see Leo continuing his ANTI-COMMUNIST activities... He wanted the power to DEPORT people who didn’t have what he considered to be “proper” POLITICAL opinions...
[ ... Hoover in 1956 created a “COINTELPRO”, standing for Counter Intelligence Program. It used often-illegal methods to discredit and preferably get RID of any political organizations he considered to be “RADICAL”, including efforts against certain CIVIL RIGHTS leaders and groups... ]
[ ... It’s been reported that, by 1960, as part of Hoover’s pursuit of anyone he considered to be a “subversive”, his people had accumulated private files on more than 430,000 Americans... ]
... After John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960, he appointed his brother Robert (Bobby) as Secretary of the JUSTICE department (under which Hoover’s FBI operated)...
... At one point, we see Leo talking to Bobby (played by JEFFREY DONOVAN) in Bobby’s office, & making clear to him that he had “transcripts” representing a confidential file on the subject of John’s AFFAIR with some woman [other than his wife Jackie]...
... In other words, he kept-up what could be called his “BULLYING” tactics to try to get things the way he WANTED from others in power...
... At one point after learning of the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Leo can be heard to comment ironically that, “POWER can CORRUPT...”
... Leo’s character didn’t like the CIVIL RIGHTS movement (having a number of RACIST tendencies)...
... He even went so far as to in-effect IGNORE Supreme Court rulings by REFUSING to have his FBI investigate RIOTS against black people or to protect blacks trying to PROMOTE CIVIL RIGHTS in the South...
... We see a scene in the movie where, with NO warrant, he has his people work to gather supposedly incriminating evidence on the SEX life of Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING, & then try to use it to force King to decline to accept the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE...
[ ... It’s been reported that Hoover’s actual intent from the attempted extortion was far more “deadly” in nature than that... ]
... As the movie goes on, we see a now-OLD Leo continuing his efforts to try to control things the way HE wanted, no matter who was at the head of the government...
... Certain Presidents wanted to get RID of Hoover-- but were afraid to fire him, for fear of what “sensitive” PRIVATE information he might have & reveal “about” them...
... Who -- or what -- eventually STOPPED Hoover from being in “control”?...
... What “roles” did the characters of ARMIE & NAOMI “play” in the final story?...
... What is the “LEGACY” of the Hoover years?...
... All in all, I found this to be an EXCELLENT piece of work, finely capturing a long “era” in American history...
... You have Hoover’s helpful work of MODERNIZING efforts to detect & find illegal activities, weighed “against” the EXCESSES of his methods...
... I’ve heard some complaints about the makeup used in the film. While Armie looked a bit “Zombie-ish” towards the end, I’m not sure of his character’s actual physical health at that time (& thus his looks may be “accurate” for his “condition”)...
... And, I thought Leo’s “aged” makeup (which I’ve heard took took 4-7 hours to apply) was excellent, having him truly LOOK like the old J. Edgar...
... I found the acting in the film to be OUTSTANDING overall, & feel Leo will quite probably garner an OSCAR nomination for his work (what with the emotional ranges he strives to express over a nearly 50-year interval)...
... Some of the “pacing” in the film is a trifle “slow” or “incomplete” at times, but I attribute that in part to the way the film chose to cover a wide PERIOD of time in a single “commercial-length” movie...
... The scope of the fascinating movie is somewhat amazing in what’s achieved: it’s “THOUGHT-provoking” (especially about the governmental EXCESSES & lack of proper personal accountability we need to be on GUARD against in this day & age), & I’m rating the film at 8.50 out of 10 stars...
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