J. Edgar

I fond DiCaprio to be horribly miscast in this role. He doesn't look like Hoover and was unable to convince me that he does. I could always see through his character to the underlying actor. He doesn't talk like Hoover either, whom I remember hearing on radio and TV as a child. Also, I found the movie to be glacially slow most of the time, and the continuity wasn't very good.

If you want a much better DiCaprio role, I suggest you try his remake of The Great Gatsby. The screen adaptation of the book is far better than the screen play for this movie. A lot of that has to do with Fitzgerald's writing genius. Still, the original Redford movie is the gold standard for Gatsby.

Leonardo DiCaprio has to be one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. He brings such passion, tenacity and honesty to his roles. He was able to successfully tackle the complexity, and hypocrisy, that was J. Edgar Hoover.

Not Eastwood's best movie but a fairly good biopic nonetheless. Di Caprio was excellent.

This is a 2011 American biographical drama directed by Clint Eastwood.
The performance of Leonardo DiCaprio is superb while depicting the controversial behaviors of J. Edgar Hoover---both public and private.
Unfortunately, however, too many flashbacks are distracting.

F.B.I> Leo DiCaprio's in it. Clint Eastwood directed it.

This is a movie about the founder of the FBI -- J. Edgar Hoover. If one wants to comment about Hoover, he must study thoroughly about Hoover. There are many books about Hoover. In short, Hoover did many good things as a crime fighter on one hand; Hoover was proven to have done some bad things on the other hand. In order to enjoy this movie without spending a lot of time, I suggest audience to read a quick profile on Hoover over the Internet & on the 1920 American recession. Then, watch this movie as a "movie", not a documentary. Then, you may enjoy this movie. If you watch this movie as a documentary, you may disagree about many things and get upset. Last note: This is a movie, not a documentary.

The good & terrible of JEH. Credit due for building FBI, but not a decent person IMO. Not a huge fan of Leo, but thought he was good in this rather rambling account. Certainly didn't get high reviews.

I thought the acting was outstanding and the make-up incredible. I was hoping that in the bonus section on the DVD they would tell something about the make-up artists and how they accomplished the different looks for different ages, but no, sorry - not there. I thought the movie was good overall - it jumped around in time a lot and I found that a bit distracting-I think that could have been done better.

The movie hopscotches back and forth in time from the Palmer Raids to JFK's assassination to the Lindbergh kidnapping to Hoover's campaign against MLK, Jr. to his gangster wars campaign of the 1930s. The movie is bloodless with no coherent statement about Hoover's FBI and the role it played in America. Hoover's COINTELPRO; his role in sculpting the Warren Commission Report; his close association with organized crime bigwigs and right-wing captains of industry -- all go completely unmentioned or are alluded to only in passing. Mostly this movie is a gay love story. The lovers are J. Edgar and his abused companion, Associate Director of FBI Clyde Tolson. It is as if Eastwood shelves good storytelling in order to out the paranoid, megalomaniac, top lawman commie fighter as nothing but a poor queer. Don't see this movie unless you want to suffer.

Too many positive comments about Hoover. The FBI, originally called the Bureau of Investigation, was founded and created by the grandnephew of Napoleon, a fellow named Joseph Bonaparte [not kidding]. Originally a secret police bureau, its mission was to round up socialists, as they were making extreme inroads into elections around the country. Of course, while there were anti-predatory-capitalist bombings at that time, the staged bombings against the politicians was a trumped up excuse by the FBI to destroy printing presses, and attack and arrest and deport honorable socialists around the country. [The explosions were usually by pro-union heroes like the McNamara brothers in LA.] The FBI has always been evil, just as they are today: can't stop terrorist events due to either colluding or pathetic incompetence. That is their record, that is their history! [Were warned repeatedly about 9/11, even confiscated the plans for the first bombing when they searched Meir Kahane's killer's apartment, and promoted Frasca and Maltbie. Warned again prior to the Boston Marathon bombing.]