J. Edgar
Directed By:
Clint Eastwood
Written By: Dustin
Lance Black
Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Jeffrey Donavan, Josh
Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, and Christopher Shyer
Director of Photography: Tom Stern, Editors: Joel Cox and
Gary Roach, Production Designer: James J. Murakami, Original Score: Clint
Eastwood
Rated: R for
occasional language
Midway
through J. Edgar, a stodgy yet occasionally exciting biopic from Clint Eastwood, the titular legend asks a
number of young men, “Who is the famous person of the first half of the 20thcentury?” Of course, we know the name he is searching for: himself. And who can
blame John Edgar Hoover for thinking of himself as such a figure? Serving under
eight presidents, creating one of the most recognizable organizations in America, and modernizing police enforcement (legally and illegally), Hoover is a figure that I’ve heard many people
generations older than me speak with disdain and hate.
And yet,
Mr. Eastwood, working from a screenplay from Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, has made something of a
psychological portrait of a man where his personal feelings became his
politics. It’s certainly a messy film, attempting to capture over fifty years
of history in just over two hours, and Mr. Black has chosen what appears on
surface arbitrarily which events to reproduce from the life. But like Mr.
Eastwood’s great works, it’s a film that is essentially about the American
myth, and about one’s man obsession with trying to preserve history the way he
desires, while burying the parts of his past he hates. After the largely bland Invictus and Hereafter, it is Mr. Eastwood's most personal film in some time, quite a statement for a film that takes on such a daunting subject.
