Review of J. Edgar (2011) by Paul W — 03 Jun 2013

When I was in my 20s and 30s J. Edgar Hoover was already an old man, universally regarded as a mean-spirited reactionary who clung to power by blackmailing anyone who might be a threat. I'm interested enough to watch a movie about him, but I can't imagine young viewers, most of whom were born decades after Hoover died, giving two shits about it.

Sure, we all watched Oliver Stone's Nixon, but Nixon was an epic figure. Hoover was, in Charles Lindbergh's words, a fussy little man. And was he really gay, as director Eastwood says he was? Those were never more than rumors, and while some of Hoover's contemporaries say he might have been, others say he definitely wasn't.

I thought that part of the movie unfounded and therefore unfair ... but more importantly, I thought the overall experience dull and uninteresting.