J. Edgar

J. Edgar is Clint Eastwood's latest film, a biography about J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was written by Dustin Lance Black, directed by Clint Eastwood, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, and Judi Dench.



J. Edgar Hoover is one of the most interesting men in 20th century American history. He formed the modern day FBI, worked under multiple Presidents (Coolidge to Nixon, almost 50 years), and was supposedly a cross-dresser. Through his life, he saw the two Red Scares, the Great Depression and the bank robberies, McCarthyism, the Mafia in the 60s, communism in the 60s, and Kennedy's assassination. He's been involved with a lot. He's one of the most controversial figures in American history. Such a man deserves a great film, with a great director and a great actor to play the man. Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio? Yeah, they could do it.

Let me start with DiCaprio. His performance was truly phenomenal. His performance is without a doubt, the best I've seen this year, and I imagine that he will win the Oscar this year. While J. Edgar Hoover has been depicted many times (never in a leading role), the only performance I can compare DiCaprio to is Kevin Dunn, in Chaplin, who did a good job, but nothing great. DiCaprio is one of the best actors out there today. From Titanic to Shutter Island, he always does a tremendous job, and here, he does even better. This truly is the best performance I've seen this year, and while we still have a month and a half of films lefts, I can't imagine any other actor to win Best Actor this year.

This is the only true positive of the film. The rest of the film is merely good. The main problem is quite frankly, there's too much source material. Many of the major events in 20th century American history involved Hoover. 50 years of history involved him. How can you put all off that in a 2 and a half hour film? Quite simply, you can't. There's too much history to put in, so Eastwood and Black condensed it so we only saw the 20s, 30s, and a bit of the 60s and 70s. McCarthyism was reduced to a single line, the Mafia, one scene. That is the main problem with this film.

However, with this major limit set upon them, they still did a good job. The rest of the cast does good, but nothing spectacular. Black is a terrific writer, and he does make good with what he's given. He'll certainly earn a nomination, but I don't believe he'll get a win. Eastwood does a good job, as usual, but still, this ain't no Gran Torino. Usually, his films are best when he acts in them. He's 81 now, so I can understand him not wanting to act. It certainly would be nice if he could act again, but I'll take him not acting over him dead. Also, the makeup on the cast wasn't very effective, especially on Armie Hammer. It looked best on DiCaprio, but still wasn't completely convincing.

All in all, this is a good movie with a truly amazing lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio. If you're a history buff at all, this film probably won't please you as much as you want it to, but it's still quite good, and gives a good look into the mind of one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. Overall, a 7.5/10.