Watch J. Edgar For Free

the audience applauded

Just perfect...

i must have seen a different film!!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

My only real complaint about Leonardo DiCaprio is that he looks like, well, Leonardo DiCaprio and that is a shame given that given that he doesn't play Lenardo DiCaprio, he plays whoever the script says he is and we all think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread because of that.Except in J. Edgar where, for the first real time, DiCaprio doesn't look like DiCaprio, he looks a lot like the cross-dressing fascist he's portraying.And being Leo, he acts like him too.THANK YOU. For once the studio didn't bank on his face and it paid out.So we not only get to see Leo acting the part, but for the first time we get to really see him looking the part too and the last time he did that was in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." And on top of it all we have Clint Eastwood directing and, honestly, not a fan of him as an actor, love him as a director.Given his politics I walked in thinking Right Wing Love Story...I walked out with "honest depiction" and that helps a lot.Not only does that help, but the scandal around Hoover's sexuality was done appropriately, that is to say it didn't take center stage, J. Edgar did...and, as I said, you were watching J. Edgar and not Leo doing his best to be the man while having to still look like himself.it's just a win all around...except it could have benefited for time. Trim it down a bit. I know he's hugely important to history and Eastwood is a great director with a great cast but...it got a bit long in the tooth at places and that hurt the flow of the film.

The drama biopic about the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the founder and longstanding head of the FBI, was released in November 2011 in the United States, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, written by Dustin Lance Black, and edited by Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach. It stars Naomi Watts as loyal Helen Gandy, Arnie Hammer as longtime companion Clyde Tolson and in the lead Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover. It depicts one of the most powerful men of modern times in an unusually intimate way, showing that the man who seemed to have known everyone's secrets spend a lot of his time struggling with his own. As the title of the movie already indicates, the audience is invited to look at the vulnerable character rather than the man of power. Disregarding the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio manages to depict a man with many facets, creating someone who has always tried to hide his true personality, but never entirely succeeded in doing so, especially not in front of the people close to him, cinematographer Tom Stern has managed to create an atmosphere that invites the spectator to travel back in time. The combination of high contrast and low colour intensity is extremely effective and additionally supports the ageing process of the characters as they travel through time, drawing wrinkles on their faces to support the makeup artists' work, although especially Arnie Hammer doesn't seem to be transformed with the same love for detail as DiCaprio. Pans and tilts invigorate the camera work and give the viewer the impression to be in the scene, discovering one detail after the other, as if one is entering a world one is not supposed to see, which supports the feeling of secrecy that is significant for the whole film and Hoover's personality. The music, which is also composed by Clint Eastwood, is neither spiritless nor intrusive; it serves to underline important flashbacks and ensure smooth transitions, as the reoccurring voice-overs of DiCaprio do. All in all, J Edgar is a film worth watching; although it can never be said how close to truth Clint Eastwood has managed to come, he has definitely accomplished creating a sensitive picture of a man who, in the end, struggled with the same issues as everyone of us does: family, love, and at a certain point the fear of letting go.

A workable biopic of FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, featuring strong direction from Clint Eastwood and a good leading performance from the dependable Leonardo DiCaprio. J. EDGAR isn't my favourite of Eastwood's movies because it does feel very slow and stately and it lacks the kind of depth present in some of his other films. However, it's much better than the overrated MILLION DOLLAR BABY, and about on par with THE CHANGELING.The film is told in flashback for the most part, and given Hoover's lengthy career, there's plenty of material to cover. We get involved in kidnappings, political wranglings, the Kennedy family, plus Hoover's own private relationships with his secretary, friend, and mother. J. EDGAR isn't a showy film at all, as it remains subtle and subdued throughout, and the actors in support like Naomi Watts barely register on the viewer's attention.While I didn't have the problems with the quality of the make-up that other reviewers on here did, I do take issues with the darker-than-dark cinematography. Eastwood seems to be going out of his way to make the whole thing as dark and gloomy as possible, which I always find makes for a faintly depressing movie. What happened to films being filled with sun and colour?

I picked this up in a remainder bin. That should have told me a lot.Let me count the ways this overly long biopic fails:(1) The lighting while intended to be atmospheric capturing the 1930s/40s, starts to get very irksome a wee way in. I want to see the characters not squint through the entire film.(2) The writing fell far short of exploring the complex character of J. Edgar, traits are lightly touched on and then irritatingly withdrawn or totally incomplete - i.e. his rampant racism and hatred of MLK is offered without explanation.(3) The aspect of Hoover's homosexuality is barely touched upon and his cross-dressing shown as a one-off event after his mother's death.(4) The makeup was completely over the top, especially but not limited to Armie Hammer playing his lover Colson. More suited to a comedy skit.(5) The sequence of events is all over the place, very distracting and also Hoover's lies about events are depicted as if reality and much much later revealed to be fantasy.(6) Overall a shambles of a film. But lawd, how they tried.4 out of 10.