I chose a movie that should have displayed all the characteristics of a successful movie, but failed. Most of my favorite movies are either based on historical events, or on classic novels, which are  normally historical fiction, so some type of historical reference should be made in movies. J.Edgar came out around last November. It was directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, which makes for an awesome team. As a history nerd, I couldn’t wait to go see a action-packed movie showing all of the corrupt actions J.Hoover and the beginnings of the FBI. I couldn’t contain my excitement when the beginning of the movie started with young Hoover witnessing communist demonstrations and a terrorist act that involved bombing a house. I braced myself for an awesome movie; although, by the end of the movie I walked out with disappointment.

1. Storyline:

The storyline was confusing and all over the place. As I said, I came into the movie thinking it was going be about the corruption of J.Edgar, but it ended up being a romance story about Hoover and Clyde Tolson, the Associate Director of the FBI. The movie tried to take on too much, which to scenes being added that didn’t get laid out as much as it should have. If the storyline would have focused on the corruption and the FBI alone, the movie would have been perfect.

2. Acting

The cast of the movie was phenomenal. It stars J. Edgar, his mother, his secretary, Helen Gandy, and Clyde Tolson. DiCaprio played Hoover’s powerful character extremely well, as expected. Judi Dench was Hoover’s crazy mother. Naomi Watts played Hoover’s defensive secretary well, and Armie Hammer played Hoover’s right hand man. The problem definitely wasn’t the acting, it was the lackluster storyline.

3. Lighting and Make-Up

I know a lot of people that watched this movie complained about the make-up and the lighting in the move. Eastwood uses a monochrome color scheme when filming, which looks awesome. While I didn’t find a problem with the lighting, the makeup definitely could have been a lot better. When I say this I’m talking mostly about the character Clyde, his makeup was pretty fake looking. The costumes were great, but the make-up needed work.

This is a scene from the movie where Hoover appears before the court to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, or the “Lindbergh Law” after the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/11/03/movies/100000001151215/clip-j-edgar.html