The Vancouver Sun
By Bob Thompson, Postmedia News
Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood on the set of J. Edgar.
Photograph by: Keith Bernstein/Warner Bros., handout
J. Edgar Hoover pursued power and glory during his five-decade reign as the director of the FBI in the U.S.
In the biopic, J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood explores the motivations of the megalomaniac, who refined police investigative procedure as surely as he corrupted America's pursuit of freedom.
Opening Nov. 11, the movie features Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover, from his early days with the justice department in Washington, D.C. in 1919, through to his ambitious building of the bureau until his death in 1972.
As the Eastwood biopic shows, Hoover maintained his grip by any means possible, which included the extortion of high-ranking U.S. officials.
While Eastwood says the movie is meant to be "about relationships," the film names names and underscores controversies, both political and personal.
Pivotal moments in the history of the FBI and Hoover's career provide the benchmarks for the narrative: Hoover's fight against Communist radicals in 1919 as a Justice department agent, the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and taking on gangsters during the Dirty '30s.
All those events led to the formation of the FBI in 1935, which is common knowledge.
Also outlined are Hoover's insidious badgering by using secret files to blackmail President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later, The Kennedys and civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, among others.
Hoover's personal life is deconstructed, as well, by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who earned an Oscar for his script for Milk, about the life and death of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.
In J. Edgar, the secretive FBI director is depicted as a mother-obsessed closeted gay man, and likely cross-dresser, who never married or had children, and probably carried on a clandestine relationship with his longtime deputy, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). But Eastwood says he wants filmgoers to decide that for themselves.
Helping the Oscar-winning director to present his biopic is a notable cast.
Academy Award-winner Judi Dench plays Hoover's strict mother. Naomi Watts is Hoover's loyal-to-his-death secretary, Helen Gandy.
Jeffrey Donovan shows up now and again as Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, while Josh Lucas is Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator whose kidnapped and murdered son led to the execution of the kidnapper, and a key moment in Hoover's career.
The fact that Hoover was never "outed" by his enemies underscores how feared Hoover was throughout his tenure as the nation's top cop.
"He was all powerful," agrees Hammer, who enjoyed his breakout performance as the Winklevoss twins in the Oscar-honoured The Social Network last year.
"I knew a little bit about him (Hoover). Apparently, he investigated my great-grandfather by going through his trash."
Most of the other revelations came as a surprise to Hammer, especially Hoover's decades-long relationship with his right-hand man, Tolson.
In fact, depicting their bond is vital in the film, which means the connection between DiCaprio's Hoover and Hammer's Tolson had to seem natural.
"Thankfully, Leo (DiCaprio) and I had a great working relationship," says Hammer. "I think we both understood it was important, so we had to take it seriously, and it made everything jell between us."
They also had something else to bond over: Eastwood's quick shooting style, which is in stark contrast to the approach of The Social Network's David Fincher, who always requests multiple takes.
Indeed, the Fincher approach, Hammer says, provided him and the rest of The Social Network cast "with a safety net, because you always knew you would have another chance to get it right."
When DiCaprio and Hammer attempted their first few J. Edgar scenes together, it took them a while to understand they would have only a few takes to capture the moment before they moved on.
"It was freaking us out at first," says Hammer of Eastwood's rapid-fire "don't over-think things" filming approach. "But you learn quickly to put every single effort into what you're doing, so with less time, you keep it fresh. You also have to trust Clint, as he trusts you and his crew."
What does Hammer favour now, the Eastwood or Fincher method? "I think the answer is somewhere in the middle."
Maybe Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will find the happy balance for Hammer when he starts filming The Lone Ranger with him by early next year at various locations throughout the American southwest.
Hammer plays the iconic "masked man" opposite Johnny Depp's Tonto, loosely based on the 1930s Lone Ranger radio show and the 1950s TV series.
The actor predicts the movie will combine action with humour, but will stay clear of irony and inside jokes.
In the biopic, J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood explores the motivations of the megalomaniac, who refined police investigative procedure as surely as he corrupted America's pursuit of freedom.
Opening Nov. 11, the movie features Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover, from his early days with the justice department in Washington, D.C. in 1919, through to his ambitious building of the bureau until his death in 1972.
As the Eastwood biopic shows, Hoover maintained his grip by any means possible, which included the extortion of high-ranking U.S. officials.
While Eastwood says the movie is meant to be "about relationships," the film names names and underscores controversies, both political and personal.
Pivotal moments in the history of the FBI and Hoover's career provide the benchmarks for the narrative: Hoover's fight against Communist radicals in 1919 as a Justice department agent, the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and taking on gangsters during the Dirty '30s.
All those events led to the formation of the FBI in 1935, which is common knowledge.
Also outlined are Hoover's insidious badgering by using secret files to blackmail President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later, The Kennedys and civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, among others.
Hoover's personal life is deconstructed, as well, by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who earned an Oscar for his script for Milk, about the life and death of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.
In J. Edgar, the secretive FBI director is depicted as a mother-obsessed closeted gay man, and likely cross-dresser, who never married or had children, and probably carried on a clandestine relationship with his longtime deputy, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). But Eastwood says he wants filmgoers to decide that for themselves.
Helping the Oscar-winning director to present his biopic is a notable cast.
Academy Award-winner Judi Dench plays Hoover's strict mother. Naomi Watts is Hoover's loyal-to-his-death secretary, Helen Gandy.
Jeffrey Donovan shows up now and again as Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, while Josh Lucas is Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator whose kidnapped and murdered son led to the execution of the kidnapper, and a key moment in Hoover's career.
The fact that Hoover was never "outed" by his enemies underscores how feared Hoover was throughout his tenure as the nation's top cop.
"He was all powerful," agrees Hammer, who enjoyed his breakout performance as the Winklevoss twins in the Oscar-honoured The Social Network last year.
"I knew a little bit about him (Hoover). Apparently, he investigated my great-grandfather by going through his trash."
Most of the other revelations came as a surprise to Hammer, especially Hoover's decades-long relationship with his right-hand man, Tolson.
In fact, depicting their bond is vital in the film, which means the connection between DiCaprio's Hoover and Hammer's Tolson had to seem natural.
"Thankfully, Leo (DiCaprio) and I had a great working relationship," says Hammer. "I think we both understood it was important, so we had to take it seriously, and it made everything jell between us."
They also had something else to bond over: Eastwood's quick shooting style, which is in stark contrast to the approach of The Social Network's David Fincher, who always requests multiple takes.
Indeed, the Fincher approach, Hammer says, provided him and the rest of The Social Network cast "with a safety net, because you always knew you would have another chance to get it right."
When DiCaprio and Hammer attempted their first few J. Edgar scenes together, it took them a while to understand they would have only a few takes to capture the moment before they moved on.
"It was freaking us out at first," says Hammer of Eastwood's rapid-fire "don't over-think things" filming approach. "But you learn quickly to put every single effort into what you're doing, so with less time, you keep it fresh. You also have to trust Clint, as he trusts you and his crew."
What does Hammer favour now, the Eastwood or Fincher method? "I think the answer is somewhere in the middle."
Maybe Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will find the happy balance for Hammer when he starts filming The Lone Ranger with him by early next year at various locations throughout the American southwest.
Hammer plays the iconic "masked man" opposite Johnny Depp's Tonto, loosely based on the 1930s Lone Ranger radio show and the 1950s TV series.
The actor predicts the movie will combine action with humour, but will stay clear of irony and inside jokes.
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