Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' misses the point: an evil reign at FBI
Forgery, illegal break-ins, manufacturing evidence, and trying to scare an American out of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: That's the FBI director whose abuses have never received adequate exposure.
One of the most disappointing films of recent years is J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood's curious depiction of the life of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Eastwood's films, even the good ones, are known for their slow pace and attenuated scenes. But this one, additionally, nears incoherence as it cuts back and forth between events of the 1920s and 1970s and Hoover's Red-fighting, crime-fighting, blackmailing and other periods. If you already knew about Hoover's career, you could make sense of the film. But, if you did not — and most viewers, nearly 40 years after Hoover's death, probably do not — it would be difficult to do so.
Hoover made the FBI a professional law enforcement agency and established scientific investigative standards. But he also was a dangerous man who can be just as easily imagined as head of the Gestapo or KGB — a bureacratic-looking, colorless person taking great pleasure from legal and extra-legal persecutions of those he considered dangers to the state (or his own position).
Eastwood makes the smarmy centerpiece of the film the supposed homosexual relationship between Hoover and his longtime close aide and FBI deputy, ClydeTolson. Imaginary scenes are developed in which Hoover and Tolson have lovers' quarrels, fistfight, and wrestle with moral dilemmas regarding Hoover's FBI initiatives (in which Tolson is portrayed as warning against excess). Tolson becomes enraged when Hoover tells him he has engaged in heterosexual activity and is thinking of marriage (to movie star Dorothy Lamour). Hoover's mother, played by Judi Dench, warns him darkly about the disgrace of being gay.
I was in Washington, D.C., during the latter years of Hoover's reign at the FBI. There were rumors that Hoover and Tolson had such a relationship and other rumors about Hoover's cross-dressing — none ever confirmed. Few in the capital cared, in any case. It was Hoover's power, not his sexual preferences, that mattered.
Hoover and Tolson took their meals together and lunched at 11:30 a.m. daily, always at the same table, at the Rib Room of the Mayflower Hotel, situated on Connecticut Avenue, distant from FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. They sat side-by-side in a corner next to a curtained window looking out on a sidewalk next to the hotel's main entrance. (A curious choice of seating, I always thought when I saw them there, since any passer-by could quite easily fire a shot or throw a bomb at them from the sidewalk, knowing their daily location. I always took care to be seated a safe distance away).
Neither Hoover nor Tolson looked anything like Leonard DiCaprio or Arnie Hammer, who play them in the film. Both, in real life, wore the FBI uniform of dark suit, dark tie, white shirt, and black shoes. I sometimes watched them at luncheon. I never saw laughter or smiles. Being security conscious, I cannot imagine they discussed sensitive business at the table. I always thought they were together constantly because of their need for mutual reinforcement and probably were talking about nothing.
Hoover was born in D.C. and lived at home as he got his bachelor's and law degrees at George Washington University. His big break came in 1919, when he was 24, when Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer put him in charge of a general intelligence dvision at Justice's Bureau of Investigation. Hoover was known for his facility in building card files and had helped do so at the Library of Congress. (A fictional scene in the film shows DiCaprio proposing marriage to Naomi Watts in the library; she tells him she is not interested in marriage, whereupon he hires her as his lifetime confidential secretary).
There was a big Red Scare at the time. There were riots and bombings in several cities and Palmer's own home had been bombed. Palmer instituted what would become known as the Palmer Raids, in which some 500 foreign nationals were deported — some Communists, others anarchists, others innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place when raids happened at meeting places, homes, and offices. Many more would have been deported had the Labor Department not actively intervened against Palmer. In the chaos, some citizens also were deported. In the end, President Woodrow Wilson had to choose between his pal Palmer (after whom the football stadium at Princeton University is named) and the Labor Department and its civil-libertarian allies. Palmer backed off. He sought the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination, to succeed Wilson, but failed and returned to private life. (In 1985, I would be the three-week guest of the Soviet government during observances of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II. My KGB escort officer, it turned out, was the son of radical American parents who had been deported from Philadelphia in the Palmer Raids. He confided, before my visit was over, that he wished his parents had been able to remain in Philadelphia).
Hoover parlayed his Red Scare success into directorship of what came to be called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, housed within the Justice Department. He reported to the Attorney General but soon developed a semi-autonomous status. In the 1930s he placed himself and the FBI in the forefront of wars against well-known gangsters. Some were killed in highly publicized shootouts or quasi-assassinations, as in the case of John Dillinger. Hoover personally participated in several high-profile arrests. "The FBI's Ten Most Wanted" posters first began to appear in post offices around the country. Movies were made about "G-Men." Several radio shows dealt with the same themes. Comic books told FBI stories. I wore a Junior G-Man badge on my sweater in the first grade. Hoover was glorified in all of it. He also, strangely, became the subject of gossip columns, sitting with celebrities in Manhattan and Hollywood bars and nightclubs. He and Tolson vacationed together at racetracks where, it was rumored, the track owners saw that he never had gambling losses. At the same time he crusaded on behalf of moral values and strict adherence to the law.
There was a strain that ran through Hoover's career. Beginning with the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids, he always saw himself as the country's defender against dangerous Communist influences. In the 1960s he waged active campaigns and manufactured evidence against the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Black Panthers, and any other group he considered Communist-associated or infiltrated. As Vice President Humphrey's assistant in the Johnson White House, I saw periodic FBI reports, which I considered to be sloppy and careless, about such organizations and persons. Hoover went so far as to forge a letter alleging Martin Luther King's misconduct, which was sent to King in the expectation that it would cause him to refuse a Nobel Peace Prize. Of course it did not. I was also aware, during the LBJ presidency, that FBI dossiers were being passed to the White House concerning plain-vanilla political figures in various states. Hoover had liaison officers whose principal duty was to curry favor with White House and congressional people. Need some information about someone of interest to you? Coming right up.
Early in the Johnson-Humphrey years, Jack Valenti, a close LBJ aide, told me that he had been with Johnson when they listened to a Hoover-supplied recording of Martin Luther King's sexual escapades in hotel rooms and told me some of what they contained. Johnson, of course, could not have cared less about MLK's personal conduct and no doubt was surprised that Hoover thought he would. In later years it was disclosed that, during the same period, Hoover had been trying to prove that Valenti, married to LBJ's former secretary, had a longstanding homosexual relationship.
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Comments:
Posted Sun, Nov 13, 12:59 p.m. Inappropriate
Thank you for this fascinating chunk of our history, TVD.
Posted Sun, Nov 13, 3:10 p.m. Inappropriate
Your premise seems to be that moviegoers' ignorance makes it unethical for Eastwood to have made anything but some sort of documentary. That's silly.
Thankfully, Eastwood aims to satisfy moviegoers who hunger for films that don't pander to them or demean their intelligence. I've just seen this one and it's a top-notch, obviously fictionalized, personal view. As he did with "Milk", Dustin Lance Black has written a movie absorbing to those of us steeped in this lived history (like you, like me) that can also pique the curiosity of those who don't know a thing about it.
Posted Sun, Nov 13, 7:20 p.m. Inappropriate
Great article. Do you think that a more forthright portrayal of the forgery, illegal break-ins, manufacturing of evidence, or the scaring of Americans into or out of anything under Hoover would resonate with contemporary audiences?
Since 9/11 all of this has become business as usual with even the most egregious examples rarely even making it to the front page.
Posted Sun, Nov 13, 9:26 p.m. Inappropriate
If only "forgery, illegal break-ins and manufacturing evidence" were the only things happening in our government today. This list sounds like a list of charges being prosecuted against the NYPD today. Stop and frisk, planting drugs on minorities to meet police quotas.
Let's not mention our new U.S. policies of breaking international law by torturing people, flying into countries at will to conduct covert operations and murdering U.S. citizens abroad. Don't forget the imprisonment of U.S. citizens like Bradley Manning with no charges being filed and no due process.
Posted Sun, Nov 13, 9:37 p.m. Inappropriate
Good summary of J. Edgar's diseased influence on America's body politic. For similar stories, see the 1992 movie Citizen Cohn (Al Pacino as Roy Cohn), and 2003 TV mini series Angels in America (focused on Roy Cohn). Unlike Hoover, for whom there is no evidence, there is little doubt that Cohn was gay (and equally despotic and megalomaniacal).
Richard Borkowski is correct; the names have changed, but the politics have not improved much.
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 10:39 a.m. Inappropriate
Excellent and informative piece, Ted. I haven't seen the movie yet, and may not bother. But as a young reporter with Congressional Quarterly magazine in the early '70s, I went to the Mayflower Hotel for lunch one day with a group of friends just so we could see Hoover and Tolson sitting together at their regular table, side-by-side. We tried not to stare, but they were a pretty odd couple. And didn't they order the same thing every day for lunch?
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 10:43 a.m. Inappropriate
Best most informative piece by Mr. Van Dyk I've seen in Crosscut to date, also the most unflinchingly accurate summary-indictment of Hoover I've seen anywhere.
Thank you Crosscut; thank you Mr. Van Dyk.
Alas, as jmrolls and Richard Borkowski each note, the secret-police functions of the FBI did not die with its founder: indeed with the Department of Homeland Security so closely patterned after the dread Reich Security Agency, the United States has become the de facto Fourth Reich.
And given what We the People have become -- except for the obscenely pampered One Percent aristocracy, the most viciously oppressed population in the industrial world -- I rather doubt Mr. Van Dyk's former KGB escort would still regret the deportation of his parents during the Palmer Raids.
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 12:15 p.m. Inappropriate
Excellent article -
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 12:44 p.m. Inappropriate
Thanks Ted for a very interesting article.
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 1:07 p.m. Inappropriate
Thanks for your comments. A response to John Hamer re the Hoover/Tolson lunches at the Rib Room at the Mayflower: I don't know if they ate the same lunch every day but would not be surprised if they did. The Rib Room's principal fare included prime rib, mashed potatoes and gravy, a vegetable of the day, and a caloric dessert tray. Cocktails beforehand. God knows what they ate for dinner. Hoover fell dead in his bedroom of a stroke. The Rib Room luncheons no doubt played their part.
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 1:41 p.m. Inappropriate
A terrific summary of this slow-motion reign of terror, with one omission (which the film apparently shares). While Hoover fixated on reds, pinkos, Panthers, hippies, Yippies, King, Kennedys, and real and perceived threats to his own power, he and his bureau mostly gave the resurgent Mafia a pass, with consequences we're still suffering today.
Posted Mon, Nov 14, 5:53 p.m. Inappropriate
First time that I see you as a live writer, Mr. Van Dyk. I agree entirely with your assessment of Hoover the person [but ought not the cowardly presidents and all those who allowed themselves to be threatened be part of this hideous story?]; but not having seen the film, which appears to use a love story as its hook, I cannot say whether the hook is relevant to the Hoover meat. As to your saying: "There have been only a few notable scandals among FBI officials. Agents, with a heavy sprinkling of lawyers and accountants, are known for their professionalism and generally enjoy public trust.." I imagine you have the amazing doings of the Boston FBI office in mind. > http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
Posted Tue, Nov 15, 10:12 a.m. Inappropriate
This is to make a final response to comments above as well as those received independently by e-mail or phone.
1. How did the FBI come to have such a wide information base about so many U.S. citizens?
Agents not only were on the lookout for criminal or seditious activity but
gained huge amounts of information through the FBI-administered clearance procedures for prospective federal executives and/or personnel at major defense contractors.
As each president forms a new administration, prospective nominees for Cabinet, sub-Cabinet, federal-commission, and other key appointments go through exhaustive FBI vetting. I received over the years White House, State Department, Defense, and special-intelligence clearances. I got feedback that FBI agents had personally interviewed persons dating back to my elementary-school years. I often was interviewed by agents looking into the backgrounds of other prospective appointees, with questions ranging across their professional and personal behavior. Over the years a huge inventory of information thus is collected about persons of both political parties---whether or not they ever are actually appointed to key positions.
There are other instances in which the FBI gets into the act. During the
1964 presidential campaign, for instance, President Johnson's chief of staff, Walter Jenkins, was involved in an incident in a YMCA bathroom and forced to resign. Johnson, immediately thereafter, directed that all
persons involved in his presidential campaign should undergo FBI investigations. I inherited the task of administering same for the Humphrey vice-presidential campaign. I began by sending a memo to all staff warning of upcoming FBI vetting and suggesting that any wishing to voluntarily leave the campaign should do so. To my surprise, maybe 20
mid- and low-level campaign staff immediately withdrew.
2. What about FBI missteps only vaguely mentioned in my article?
There was, of course, the highly publicized corruption in the agency's Boston bureau where recently apprehended crime boss/informant Whitey Bulger was bribing and getting special treatment from its ranking agents.
The most notable modern-day screwup was the fatal raid on the Koresh compound in Waco, Texas. The FBI carried it out but it was authorized by
newly appointed Attorney General Janet Reno.
Over many years I had contact with many FBI agents. For the most part, I found them to be sensible, highly-professional, and conscientious. But
they were not necessarily reflective of Hoover and his inner-circle, who held sensitive matters closely. Do I fear current day abuses at the FBI?
They no doubt are taking place but not because of the current director's freelancing, empire-building policies.
Posted Wed, Nov 16, 8:54 a.m. Inappropriate
Looks like the Homeland Security guys took up where the FBI left off.
http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies
Posted Tue, Nov 22, 6:26 p.m. Inappropriate
I thought it was a well-crafted movie. I wasn't expecting to see a documentary, but an interesting character study, and I was not disappointed.
Posted Wed, Nov 30, 8:24 a.m. Inappropriate
Clint's worst work because of insufficient detail on lunacy of agents & fbi culture.
"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains." (Rousseau)
Do a background check on fbi/police assassins and serial killers (via my sites); then be less concerned about the run of the mill murderer.
http://current.com/community/92710699_fear-less-the-murderer.htm
College campuses across the nation are in fascist/police lockdown under the influence of fbi assassins, as evidenced by gross violations of human, civil, and constitutional rights of our citizens.See my documentations:
The fbi, military intelligence at CSUN (James Wolf), police, UT chancellor, UT legal counsel all team up to create a fraudulent police report with patently false contents in order to find a way to illegally arrest this fbi whistleblower. See this and related links:
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19a-updatefo.html
QUESTIONS! geral sosbee (956)536-0439 One agency of government above all others must be destroyed: the federal burro of investigation (fbi).
http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/americans-embrace-their
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/oliverwendallhol.html
Feinstein is one of the most treacherous traitors in congress:
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-congress-of-usa-will-live-in.html
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BTW: In the early years of the fbi Hoover discovered that his agents were generally not quite capable (for a number of reasons) to deal with the murderers and psychopaths of organized crime in the United States; so, Hoover and his associates set out to correct this inadequacy in a calculated and systematic manner: his agents when deemed appropriate would (by training and mind programming) become themselves homicidal sociopaths. His plan worked so well that in today's fbi, one cannot always determine which agents (and operatives) are cold blooded murderers and torturers.For example: People who knew H. Paul Rico (ex-fbi agent)"... recall him as a cop who dressed and talked like a gangster. Only much later would it become clear that it was not an act." Hitman, Howie Carr, Tom Doherty Associates,LLC,175 Fifth Avenue, New York,NY 10010,2011, p.63.
http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/war-on-terror-2010
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2011/10/courts-and-fbi-torture-maim-or-kill_01.html
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hooverletter.html
Also see:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2011/11/15/campus-rotc-unlikely/
Re: Insider Trades:
http://ttu.academia.edu/geralsosbee
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html
Human Experimentation:
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/non-consensual.html
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