Hello. Here is todays movie.
J. EDGAR
There are two different
storylines in this film. The first one stats in the 1960’s when J. Edgar Hoover
brings in agent Smith to write his autobiography. The second track is Hoover
telling Smith in flashback the story of his career. It starts in 1919 when
radicals start planting bombs, including trying to kill the Attorney General
Mitchell Palmer, Hoover lives with his mother. He meets Helen Gandy and while
she rejects his marriage proposal agreed to become his secretary. Hoover
organized an anti-radical task force and got Emma Goldman deported. Hoover led
raids against suspected radical groups. A new Attorney General Harlan Stone
named him head of the FBI. Hoover met
Clyde Tolson and hires him. Hoover starts his secret files that contain
damaging material about prominent people. In the early sixties Hoover uses the
secret files to blackmail the Kennedy brothers to avoid having to deal with the
Mafia and to approve his methods of dealing with the Civil Rights
movement. Hoover tells how at the start
of the depression a wave of bank robberies created work for the FBI. When the
Lindbergh kidnapping occurred, Hoover tried to take over the case. Lindbergh
and John Condon deliver the ransom money to the supposed kidnappers, but the
child is not returned. Hoover uses the lack of oversight by the Kennedys to use
wiretaps and bugs to try and get damaging info on Martin Luther King, Jr. At
Hoover’s insistence the bills serial numbers used in the Lindbergh ransom are
noted. On May 12, 1932, the body of the Lindbergh baby is found. [1:02:53 to
1:03:58] Hoover personally arrests
several people on the most wanted list. Tracking the serial numbers of the
Lindbergh ransom money eventually leads to Bruno Richard Hauptman, who is
arrested charged, convicted and executed for the crime. Hoover uses this case
to get kidnapping made a federal offense and establishes the FBI crime lab.
Tolson and Hoover, who have been having a homosexual affair have a huge fight
when Hoover says he’s going to marry a woman, but nixes the idea when Tolson
says he will leave if he does. Hoover’s
mother dies shortly after this. In the 1960’s Tolson has a stroke, which upsets
Hoover. Hoover used the secret files to
blackmail FDR to keep him from interfering
with the FBI. Hoover runs a vendetta against Martin Luther King, Jr. convinced
he’s a communist revolutionary and tries to use damaging information about King
to force him to decline the Nobel Peace Prize. When Hoover dies suddenly Helen
Gandy destroys the secret files.
Di Caprio gives a fantastic
performance. However, this film has a muddled plot that is hard to follow at
times. Overall it is a good biographical movie about a very controversial
figure.
The Ghosts of Hopewell:
Setting the Record Straight About the Lindbergh Kidnapping Case by
Jim Fisher (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Ill., 1999) at page
21 gives the date the body was discovered
Director - Clint Eastwood
Producer - Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer and Robert Lorenz
Starring –
Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover
Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson
Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy
Josh Lucas as Charles Lindbergh
Judi Dench as Anna Marie Hoover
Damon Herriman as Bruno Richard Hauptmann
Jeffrey Donovan as Robert F. Kennedy
Ed Westwick as Agent Smith
Zach Grenier as John Condon
Ken Howard as Harlan F. Stone
Stephen Root as Arthur Koehler
Denis O'Hare as Albert S. Osborn
Geoff Pierson as Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Lea Thompson as Lela Rogers
Gunner Wright as Dwight D. Eisenhower
Christopher Shyer as Richard Nixon
Miles Fisher as Agent Garrison
Screenplay - Dustin Lance Black
Released – November 9, 2011
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