One of the most entertaining ways to learn about history is to see it unfold on the big screen. Sure, a good documentary can be very informative, but with those you're confined to seeing interviews, grainy stock footage and still photos. Some may use reenactments, but they tend to be hokey. The problem with Hollywood history, however, is poetic license. You really never know the historical accuracy of what you are watching. Sometimes, especially with a biopic, you kind of have to apply poetic license in order to make it more entertaining. Sometimes they succeed like the films "Frost/Nixon" (2008) and the George Bush biopic "W." (2008). Sometimes they are accurate and entertaining like "The Aviator" (2004) and "Ray" (2004). The problem with this film is that the facts surrounding the life of J. Edgar Hoover are contested among historians. Mix that in Tinseltown and there's no knowing what's real and what's not.
In "J. Edgar" they clearly exploit the juicy rumors of his lifestyle that was taboo at the time, although after doing some research it seems as they these rumors have been disproved. The few facts we can agree on is that J. Edgar Hoover was the brains behind establishing the US FBI as we know it today, and he was a pioneer in forensic science, particularly in his contribution of initializing the creation of a fingerprint database. The film takes us through his life as he politically battles communism and the influence of the Bolsheviks, right through the presidency of Richard Nixon. What more, we learn from the movie that Hoover had a tendency of sensationalizing everything he did. He did it so often he truly began to believe the exaggerated version of events over what really happened. This only farther blurs the lines between reality and fiction.
I'm normally not a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, but I thought he did well with this role. Quite frankly I'm a little surprised he didn't receive more recognition for this role. I thought it was better than some of the other roles he's played that received more merit. I've never heard J. Edgar Hoover speak, but according to this film he had an accent I didn't care for. If that's how he really spoke then so be it, but it was kind of annoying. Hoover lived his entire life in Washington, DC so I'm not sure what the accent was. It sounded almost like Boston, but I think it was supposed to be a slight southern drawl.
The bottom line is J. Edgar Hoover led an interesting life. Couple that with some creative screenwriting and you have an entertaining film. Just don't quote this move as a source in an intellectual conversation.
