Director Clint Eastwood, who once played a fierce "make my day" cop, has now portrayed J. Edgar Hoover (played by Leonardo Di Caprio) as the son of a strong mother, Annie (played by Judi Dench), who groomed him to have high self-esteem but a mixed-up sexual identity. The film traces Hoover's career from his beginning in 1919 as a right hand man of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (played by Geoff Pierson) until his death in 1972. Highlights include the crackdown on Bolshevik sympathizers in 1919, pursuit of John Dillinger and Prohibition-era bootleggers, apprehension of the kidnapper of Lindberg's son, transforming the public view of criminals from heroes into villains, compiling damaging files on politicians from Eleanor Roosevelt to Richard Nixon to ensure his tenure as FBI director, his hatred for Martin Luther King, Jr., and an autobiography that he dictates during flashforwards with false claims to greatness. Hoover's most important accomplishments are to professionalize law enforcement and to frighten politicians into providing enough funding to support that professionalization. Yet lurking behind the public Hoover is a troubled personal life. His mother insists that he should never be a "daffodil," that is, effeminate, and she puts him through a ritual to build his self-esteem. When she dies, he puts on her clothes, presumably to feel her power. However, in direct contradiction, Hoover hires Clyde Tolson (played by Armie Hammer) as his deputy because of a love-at-first-sight experience, and the two continue as close buddies, albeit on a Platonic basis and a few handholding encounters initiated by Hoover, throughout the rest of Hoover's life. Tolson, in fact, becomes his heir and lives in Hoover's house after his death. But Hoover is also attracted to females. In another love-at-first-sight encounter, he gets on his knees to beg his newly hired executive secretary, Helen Gandy (played by Naomi Watts), to marry him. She turns him down but stays as a loyal employee until his death. Much later, Hoover is infatuated by Heddy Lamar, even becoming "physical" with her. But when Hoover suggests that there might be a Mrs. Hoover, Tolson reacts so strongly that Hoover changes his mind, realizing that a ménage-à-trois is a foolish idea. There are some amusing parts of the film, particularly when President Richard Nixon (played by Christopher Shyer) rushes assistants to Hoover's office immediately after his death to get the "fucking file." In short, Eastwood has done for Hoover what Oliver Stone did in Nixon (1995). But Hoover's political views about the need to purge America of Communists, criminals, and anyone thought to be a phony are explicated only in soundbites. Despite Eastwood's guesses about Hoover's crossdressing and handholding of Tolson, J. Edgar clearly merits a Political Film Society award as best film exposé of 2011. MH
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