Since it's Clint we don't expect a full-blown, left wing whacko smear of J. Edgar Hoover...and that didn't happen. As a matter of fact, J. Edgar was shown as a driven overachiever clamoring for fame and notoriety as implanted by his mother (Densch). We come to know him as a fanatical commie chaser and learn something of our own history beginning in 1919 when communists were actually a real bomb throwing threat to the USA. Hoover magically survived this era of arrest and reprisal deportations and became the acting director at a very early age of this still newborn agency.
He meets Miss Gandy (Watts) who is strangely like himself: not interested in the opposite sex but the job. He makes her his secretary and sometimes confidant who ultimately handled all the secret files he created on members of government. (Thanks to her NONE of his private files were found after his death.)
Clint dishes up a lot of dirt in an efficient manner giving just enough details to avoid getting bogged down. He touches on Eleanor and Franklin, MLK, JFK, and RFK (plus a few others). All in all it keeps you interested.
J. Edgar meet Tolson early on and was immediately attracted to him. Clint did something here that surprised me, he portrayed their relationship as a platonic homosexual one. There was never any physicality in their relationship and it was explained by a scene with his mother when she told him she could never live with a son who was "that way". When Hoover told Clyde he had seen Dorothy Lamour a few times and was thinking he needed a MRS. Hoover Clyde asked him if he had been physical with her. When J. Edgar answered affirmative Clyde freaked out and the only male kiss of the film occurred during this emotional outburst.
There is so much more to tell about J. Edgar's ego-boosting for himself at the sake of the truth but I'll leave that for the viewers. This film was the same high quality product you would expect from Eastwood and the entire cast was superb. As much as I detest Leo I got over it quickly and predict he will be leading the Oscar race for Best Actor and Clint for Best Director.
This is worth seeing if you are of the Hoover Generation like most Boomers. It gives, hopefully, true insights to the very complicated man who terrorized president's for decades. (Except for Nixon--Hoover admitted to being frightened of him.)
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Topic - "J. Edgar": Clint dishes up the dirt . . . - mr grits 17:44:12 11/11/11 (13)
- There was one thing that really surprised me about this one - Analog Scott 21:14:53 11/17/11 (0)
- Did it go over all the under the table deals? Like with the Unions? ..nt - late 12:33:58 11/13/11 (2)
- Go see it, smarty pants. * - mr grits 12:36:11 11/13/11 (1)
- Netflix fodder ..nt - late 13:33:55 11/13/11 (0)
- Hoover was asleep at the trigger....... - HI FI BOB 13:41:20 11/12/11 (1)
- He was a nut ..nt - late 12:33:13 11/13/11 (0)
- nice review, I thought it was interesting two couples walked out during the viewing I attended - PhilJ 12:43:15 11/12/11 (4)
- Clint is a mediocre director. "Unforgiven" is a classic, but with that many shots, couldn't most average - tinear 10:50:04 11/15/11 (0)
- Could it have been the language? - mr grits 13:26:12 11/12/11 (2)
- I think they walked out before that. It is not a movie that grabs you - PhilJ 14:11:00 11/12/11 (1)
- His use of flashback "morphing" could tend to bamboozle . . . - mr grits 12:41:13 11/13/11 (0)
- Nice review...except that it was the Anarchists who were throwing bombs in 1919. * - Tony D. 19:57:09 11/11/11 (1)
- Within the heavy "anti-communist" context of the film I came away thinking commies. * - mr grits 10:15:01 11/12/11 (0)