Film File - J Edgar

"Justice is incidental to law and order." Such was the simplistic view of the 'greatest G-man of them all', as the criminal underworld called him, the man who spent his life compiling dossiers and files on wrongdoers, both criminal and political. During his lifetime, J Edgar Hoover (Leo Di Caprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America - the man who knew where the bodies were buried, in every sense of the word. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, through eight presidents and three wars, Hoover waged battle against threats, both real and perceived, often bending the rules to "keep our country safe". His methods were at once ruthless and heroic, with admiration of the world his most coveted, if ever elusive, prize. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets, particularly those of others, and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation. Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover's designs, remained loyal to the end. Only Hoover's mother, Annie (Judi Dench), who served as his inspiration and his conscience, would leave him, her passing truly crushing to the son who forever sought her love and approval. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, 'J Edgar' explores the personal and public life of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Hoover was a complex and compelling figure who captivated America and whose legacy is still felt in the halls of the FBI building named after him. Both feared and revered, the question of who he really was remains largely speculative to this day. The Clint Eastwood-directed film opens in the mid-1970s, when Hoover is nearing the end of his life and his time as Director of the FBI. Wanting to preserve everything he's built, he begins dictating his memoirs, reflecting back on his early days as a man in his early 20s, when he first began working with what was then simply the Bureau of Investigation. As an old man, however, Hoover was still so obsessed with communism that he didn't recognise things were changing for the better during the Civil Rights Movement, instead seeing it as an uprising that had the potential to become something more destructive. That was when he lost his footing, and failed to see the real future of America. Like all Clint Eastwood films, 'J Edgar' is certainly watchable - but is, overall, too gentle a portrayal of someone who still, even today, prompts heated debate as one of America's most reviled or admired figures - depending on your politics. Hoover's sexuality, long an open-ended question and rich ground for comedians down the years, is at the centre of Dustin Lance Black's screenplay. Presented as a man tormented by his own hidden desires, the notion that his huge paranoia regarding the nation's morality stemmed from his own repressed inclinations seems too pat an answer to one who thrived too much on the bedroom secrets of JFK or Martin Luther King. Haunted by the ambitions of his domineering mother - a scary Dench in full flight - J Edgar's role as guardian of the country's safety remained a position at constant odds with his self-appointed chief of its attendant morality. Bathing in the nation's adulation for his solving of the Lindberg case and capturing public enemy number one, John Dillinger, Eastwood's nuanced portrait of a deeply troubled man with a love of wiretaps and secret files is, at times, overly slow and meandering. Black, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of 'Milk', has crafted a complex portrayal of Hoover - but one where perhaps a little less psychology and a bit more pathology might have been a better mix.