J Edgar Review

Director: Clint Eastwood

Main Actors:  Leonardo DiCaprio as J Edgar Hoover, Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson and Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy 

     
     The movie J Edgar explores the rise and the relationships of the FBI’s founder, J Edgar Hoover.  The movie explores both the good and the bad of J Edgar Hoover’s rise to power.   The movie jumps between the present, when Hoover was dictating his biography to a writer, and the past when the events he was narrating were occurring.  His rise to power was neither easy nor without its cost, but in the end Hoover is one of the most remembered names in history.

     The Bureau began as a secret operation, with Hoover running a special team to fight Communism because he felt that what was being done was being done ineffectively.    Hoover was an organizer.  He helped to create the original card catalog at the Library of Congress and early in his career began to keep secret files on those he considered his enemies.  

      One of the themes the movie discusses is the abuse of power.  Hoover was no better than some of the criminals. He exploited his position to do illegal wiretappings and he was willing to blackmail others, among many other abuses, all of which could have easily tainted the good work he was doing.  He would do anything for the pursuit of justice, even if it meant going over the law. 

        Another aspect of Hoover was that he wanted to follow his own theories and not his superiors.  There were several times in the movie when a superior asked him to follow a certain theory, but if it did not fit in with his plan, he resisted.  He was stubborn in nature and fixated on Communism, even when the times changed.  

       Despite the negative aspects, when Hoover was given control of the Bureau, he did not just accept the job, but rather gave demands as to what the Bureau was going to have and be about.  These demands, in part, formed the FBI we see today.  Most of these demands were standards he wanted to see implemented, such as well-educated agents, the use of scientific  methods, and a department that was free from politics.

       Hoover brought science to the FBI.  Before him people did not believe that cataloging fingerprints would work; in fact, he was mocked several times for that.  He also brought in experts after the Lindbergh Kidnapping to analyze the wood from the ladder and handwriting samples from the letter.   Forensic science was basically founded, at least in the FBI, by Hoover.  Even when others did not see the importance, he fought to be sure there was space for the labs.

       Hoover also gave up his life to make the Bureau strong and respected.  With the coming and the going of each President, Hoover feared the loss of all that he worked for, especially in his early days.  Before the FBI became popular and it was cool to be an agent of the law, people respected the public enemies.  They made movies about the criminals and idolized them, but after the FBI captured several important criminals, favorable movies came out about the Bureau .  Thus, Hoover created a positive image of the FBI with the people and made it a necessity of the government. 

       This movie told the story of a man who dedicated his life to his work.  Hoover worked until the day he died.   His strongest relationships were that with his mother, his second-in-command, who was also his lover, and his secretary upon whom he relied for everything.  Hoover and his second-in-command, Tolson, had lunch together nearly every day. That was the only love relationship Hoover ever had.  

        Despite some of his actions, which are illegal in hindsight, Hoover created an institution, which the country needed.  The movie showed that Hoover was neither an idolized figure in government, nor was he a tyrant.  He did many things that were good, but also many things that were harmful.   America needs to remember all the good Hoover did, but also all the things that were an abuse of power.  America needs to remember that Hoover did many things to protect the country in a time when gangsters and lawlessness was celebrated. He was a man who worked hard until the day he died. 

       However, he was also out for self-aggrandizement.  He wanted to be remembered as the man who stopped the gangsters and single-handedly saved lives, even though those were the actions of others.  He was an innovator, a man ahead of his time, a strange mixture of hero and villain, but overall he was still just a man, and that is what is reflected in the movie.