J. Edgar

[Straightshooter2]

My wife and I went to see this today. DiCaprio, I thought, did an excellent job as Hoover. I thought his "aging makeup" was good but some others instead of looking like they were aging looked like their skin was peeling off.

However if you are a J. Edgar Hoover fan, do not go see the movie as they do not always paint him in the best light and in fact, some parts paint him in the worst light. Overall, it's a movie I didn't mind paying to see and I'll watch it again when it's on TV.

Trailers showed scenes from an upcoming movie called "Red Tails." It's a WWII aviation flick about, of course, the 332nd Fighter Group aka the Tuskegee Airmen who painted the tails of their P-47 Thunderbolts and later their P-51 Mustangs red. Bomber crews called them Red Tailed Angels. Looks like it might be an excellent movie.

CW

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I gave up getting my history from Hollyweird years ago. I enjoyed Oliver Stone's "JFK" but I don't think "Oliver Stone Explains It All To You." All the Marines I have talked said the Basic Training scenes in "Full Metal Jacket" are dead on, the rest of the movie is ridiculous.

 

[squidsix]

Question: Was there a Registered Magnum sighting in the film?

 

[jlrhiner]

I did not enjoy the film at all. (And I'm NOT a J.Edgar fan). I guess my expectations were skewed, but I was expecting an action film, not a borderline physcopath, ego-manical control freak who apparently blackmailed 7 presidents to keep his job. I almost left it twice, but it was like a car accident.

 

[rewster]

My wife and I are thinking of going this Fri.

"....borderline physcopath, ego-manical control freak who apparently blackmailed 7 presidents to keep his job."

Why would you expect othewise. This is exactly what he was You could have added "cross-dressing" but I don't know if that was addressed in the movie

 

[Wyatt Burp]

I gave up getting my history from Hollyweird years ago. I enjoyed Oliver Stone's "JFK" but I don't think "Oliver Stone Explains It All To You." All the Marines I have talked said the Basic Training scenes in "Full Metal Jacket" are dead on, the rest of the movie is ridiculous.

BLACKHAWKNJ, say it ain't so!! OK, JFK was agood movie to watch, if you like complete fiction. Stone butchered history by making child molester lunatic Jim Garrison as a hero when he had no proof of anything and ruined that one guy's life by trying him. That's the grey haired guy played by Tommy Lee Jones. He was aquitted within minutes.Then Oliver Stone destroys him again in the movie. Then he fabricates the Donald Sutherland character to explain the conspiracy when that guy didn't exist. An insult to history which glorified a creep and perpetrated lies. I'm sure Oliver Stone lies under his bed with his cocaine wearing a tin foil hat listening to aliens through his fillings. But it was a very entertaining movie poisoning the minds of young history minded people who believed it. He pulled that off by incorporating real footage so efectively within his movie.
I'll watch J Edgar when it costs a dollar at Redbox.

 

[BE Mike]

After reading these posts, I probably won't go see this movie. I'm not big into the trend to assassinate someone's character when they are long dead and can't defend themselves. I'm not a big Di Caprio fan anyway.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Why would you expect othewise. This is exactly what he was You could have added "cross-dressing" but I don't know if that was addressed in the movie

The cross dressing thing was never exactly proven. It exists out there alongside the homosexual Abe Lincoln as a somewhat questionable "maybe" in history.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

The cross dressing thing was never exactly proven. It exists out there alongside the homosexual Abe Lincoln as a somewhat questionable "maybe" in history.

I think it was just something made up by his destractors convienently AFTER his death. There was enough real stuff to be concerned about without making things up.

 

[Cooter Brown]

It's a Clint Eastwood movie and he usually does a pretty good job as director. I'll prob. get it when it comes out on disk.

As far as Hoover and the cross dressing/homosexual angle, he was one of the most hated men in history by people both within and outside the government and on both sides of the law.

Seems to me that if something were really there someone would have dug it up by now, or back when he was alive.

 

[Straightshooter2]

Seems to me that if something were really there someone would have dug it up by now, or back when he was alive.

Everyone who was anyone in government was scared of Hoover and his "private files" which he was known to keep. It was mentioned in the credits at the end of the movie that:
Hoover left his estate to Tolson who moved into his house.
Tolson's grave is very close to Hoover's.
Tolson accepted the flag that draped Hoover's coffin.
Hoover's private files were never found and that much of the movie was based on snippits of information that have come out since Hoover's death.

The crossdressing was only slightly hinted at in the movie, the homosexuality more heavily addressed although it was intimated that he never did anything about it and rebuffed any advance by Tolson even thought they ate most of their meals together and vacationed together. I've seen real pictures of Hoover and Tolson on vacation and their body language (yes it's inexact) shows them closing out others and, while Tolson's body language is very open toward Hoover, Hoover himself has his arms crossed indicating he is closed in upon himself.

Did I believe everything in the movie? Of course not. I do remember Hoover and I remember the rumors after his death. Like someone said, he was loved by some, hated by others. But let's face it, without him the FBI, even with all it's faults, would never have risen to the premium law enforcement agency that it is. Tolson and others may have done most of the real work but Hoover was the public face of the agency, both to the people of the U.S. and Congress where he got the money to build it up.

CW

 

[sigp220.45]

The closest I ever came to being punched out by another agent was when a "Hoover man" and I were going to a meet and greet with then-Director Louis Freeh.

The older guy remarked that I was wearing a blue dress shirt with my suit. He went on to say "You know what Mr Hoover would say about an Agent wearing a colored shirt? He'd say you were a homosexual."

That pitch was low and slow, so I swung.

"Well if anyone would know," says I, "that old queen sure would."

Time stopped for a moment. The earth ceased its rotation upon its axis. Birds hung in mid-wingbeat.

He stared at me, red faced. After a long moment he apparently decided his pension was worth more than the immense satisfaction of smashing in my face.

He turned without a word, and probably never said three words to me again.

All of the Hoover men are long retired now, but many of the guys of my generation still can't get their heads around even accepting the possibility J Edgar may have been gay.

Its a non-issue to me. I was disappointed in the movie, but not with the gay stuff. It just seemed too long and oddly disjointed.

 

[Straightshooter2]

I was disappointed in the movie, but not with the gay stuff. It just seemed too long and oddly disjointed.

True. While I said I did like the movie and I don't mind flashbacks, there were too many of them. I expected the movie to start at the beginning and move to modern day, not back and forth, back and forth over and over again. But I would still watch it again.

CW

 

[sipowicz]

I didn't care for it...it's hard to like a film where you aren't rooting for the main character....and he gave us little to root about. In the Unforgiven, Clint gave us a despicable character...but you rooted for him because he was on a just mission and his young wife turned his life around, even though he made a lousy hog farmer.

 

[DCWilson]

Haven't seen the flick yet, but will. Don't expect to like it because I generally don't like biographical flicks. I do think Leonardo DiCaprio is a really good actor, but he has the residual pretty boy problem and needs to age significantly in order to catch up with his skills. I hope he is still making films in his 50s (and that I am still alert enough to appreciate them).

I watch films as much for the craft that goes into them as for the story they tell. I never would have predicted this, but Clint Eastwood has become one of my favorite directors simply because of the storytelling skill that he brings to his projects. I don't think movies like "Hereafter" or "The Changeling" are great flicks, but I love the sense of place and attention to detail he brings to them. I don't know how many more movies this guy has in him, but I hope he keeps grinding them out.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

J. Edgar was a flawed man....many in history are. His accomplishments outweight those faults in my book.
The way law enforcement worked then and now are two completely different animals. Look how Henderson Jordan and Frank Hamer handled Bonnie and Clyde; in this day and age, both of those men would've been sent to prison for civil rights violations. In the 30's, they did what needed to be done to take down two highly dangerous individuals.

IMHO Hoover, like Elliott Ness, were both obsessive men...the obsession destroyed them both over time to where had they looked in the mirror, they would've realized they turned into what they despised. This is what makes Hoover tragic.

A lot of training programs and techniques that Hoover introduced on his watch are STILL are being used and provide a basis for the tactics that MANY agencies use today....and probably will a hundred years down the road.

I would hardly consider him ANY kind of failure...like cops of that era, he was a product of his time.

As far as his sexuality goes....WHO CARES? I would venture to look at it with the same comment Mr. Eastwood himself, in his Dirty Harry character in Magnum Force did.

I have no intention of watching the movie.

 

[imjin138]

I haven't seen the movie, but probably will. When I was growing up I read everything I could by FBI agents or about them. I have never actually met one but I like to think then and now they are some of the best trained LE officers out there.

I did watch the Untouchables and the F.B.I. with Efrem Zimblast Jr. every week.

Whether he was a cross dresser or gay I don't know and don't really care most of it was said long after he was dead and could not defend himself.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

J. Edgar Hoover was a controversial character who did good things and bad things with and for the FBI. His contributions, both positive and negative, might be an interesting subject if dealt with by someone with more credibility and good faith than Hollywood.

 

[therevjay]

May see it, may not. My dislike of J. Edgar stems from the fact that my 1st & middle name IS Jay Edgar. When I was about 5-8 yrs old in the late 40's early 50's I had to listen to my little pals and their sing-song "J. Edgar Hoooover."

Thank God the little varmints didn't know that after a hard day of crime fighting he liked to go home and dress up like a girl.....And it wouln't have made a bit of differance whether the story was true or not.

 

[semperfi71]

I saw the movie yesterday. I have never read anything about J. Edgar Hoover. I have only heard and read the comments of people who have supposedly read about J. Edgar Hoover.

I have the impression that only three people really knew anything about J. Edgar Hoover, his mother, his secretary, and Mr. Tolson.

I do know that is was not uncommon back then for men, and women, to have very, very close friendships with the same sex and those friendships were not based on anything sexual.

Hollywood goes way out of its way to support gay rights but then Hollywood used most of the movie to insinuate a gay relationship between Hoover and Tolson just so they could trash Hoover.

I thought the movie was a cheap shot at a man who probably no one really knew much about.

As my wife told me, "It was not a movie about G-Men, it was a movie about a love affair between two men."

Clint Eastwood was interviewed about a week ago on television and the reporter asked him if the movie would delve deeply into the relationship between Hoover and Tolson.

Eastwood said he did not go into any great details in the movie but he would just leave the assumptions of the relationship up to the audience. He lied. The movie is quite implicit if not explicit in detailing a gay relationship between Hoover and Tolson.

Eastwood's "J. Edgar" to me was about as much trash as Stone's "JFK".

On a lighter side, I kept looking for Hoover to whip out his ".357 Magnum". But in the movie they were so determined to undermine his persona that they had him carrying a very small, short-barreled revolver of what appeared to be a .32 caliber persuasion. It looked like a Colt Pocket Positive with a three inch barrel. BUT...they had all the other "G-Men" carrying large handguns, shotguns, and tommy-guns...

I expect next year this movie will be nominated for several Oscars. It was a cheap shot at a right-wing conservative therefore in true Hollywood fashion a movie worth several Oscars.

Costuming and set design was great though!!