11-17-11 Movie Review: J. Edgar

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J. Edgar is surprisingly sympathetic to former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to the point of pretending to be based on an oral autobiography that Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover is periodically shown dictating to some kind of a secretary and more often heard doing so on the sound track. Partly as a result of this point of view, Hoover appears as motivated from beginning to end by patriotism, fear of communism, and conviction that he has to gain and retain power because he can’t trust anybody less enlightened to use it properly.

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Whether this interpretation of Hoover is historically accurate or not, it makes for the movie’s biggest flaw, a main character who remains unchanged and undeveloping, essentially a weak concept, dramatically. There are a few indications, especially in a speech toward the end by Hoover’s lifelong companion Clyde Tolson, played by Armie Hammer of The Social Network, that the facts are not quite what the movie shows; and Hoover’s private life is hardly touched upon. Still, J. Edgar is supposedly accurate on Hoover’s efforts against unexplained official opposition to establish modern police methods in the FBI, there is a lot of accurate presentation of the history of the twenties through the McCarthy days, there is a first-rate performance by Leonardo DiCaprio even under a face stiffened by age makeup, and there is an admirable restraint in what handling there is of such secondary considerations as Hoover’s private life.

Still, one is disappointed by the reticence about such live controversies as Hoover’s sex life, and one wonders whether people are still afraid to risk the truth about him. I recommend a good biography.