J. Edgar is a movie that’s perhaps better off on DVD and Blu-ray than it was in cinemas. The reason for that is that it’s a rather narratively complex beast and so takes at least a couple of viewing to properly unravel. Its problem is that the first viewing is likely to seem rather dull to many, so they’re less likely to want to revisit it.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover, who for nearly half a century oversaw the FBI from when it was a fledgling organisation, though the depression and era of the gangster, onto the red scare and beyond. The film sees Hoover as an old man dictating his memoirs, while in flashback we see his earlier days and how he quickly climbed to the top of the Bureau Of Investigation (as it was initially known) and used the likes of the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping to increase the power of the organisation. [Read more...]
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