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Sunday 13 November 2011

J. Edgar

On every level this looks like a winning combination, but...

The trailer is too long (2:33) and tells too much of the story, unnecessarily.  It's a true story and can all be verified on Google so why the overkill? J. Edgar Hoover's life and career are well documented, and frankly, there was enough interesting stuff in the first minute of the trailer to make the film look appealing (who didn't love The Untouchables?)... but what do I know, right?  What I have heard about J. Edgar Hoover, founder of the FBI, is that he used to like to wear women's clothing.  That part wasn't in the too long trailer.

Leonardo DiCaprio.  Never had time for him until I saw Catch Me If You Can.  Since then, I've become a fan.  The only exception was that terrible film he starred in after Catch Me If You Can, about Howard Hughes.  I trust this biopic will be better than The Aviator.

Clint Eastwood movies.  We all know that, within the 2 hours of this film, we will be manipulated into caring about the characters only to have that attachment ripped from us in the form of a tragic death or loss of some kind (Million Dollar Baby? Gran Torino?).  While I like Eastwood movies, he kind of has that clever, I'll fuck with your emotions because I'm a good film-maker, I'm brilliant at developing plot and character and don't you forget who the man is, so go ahead, make my day, Disney-style arrogance.    

J. Edgar could be one of those movies that sweeps the Oscars, earning the gold for both Eastwood and DiCaprio.  It could be this year's Ray or Walk the Line or The Last King of Scotland.  It could also be one of those movies that I will never get around to seeing.

Kind of curious about the women's underwear thing... but not sure how curious.
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5 comments:

  1. Greggie, the Curmudgeon14 November 2011 at 08:57

    Hoover was enough of a nut-job (forget ‘cross-dressing’ and get into his pathological (sociopathic) character) to provide interesting cinema – I just hope it doesn’t fall into the oh-so-easy stereotype of two polemic extremes (um, good and evil).

    Oh, and speaking of Disney-style arrogance, this cat didn’t dig ‘The Untouchables’. Brian De Palma is the king of rip-off artists – be it Hitchcock, Coppola or (in this insipidly black and white fairytale) Eisenstein – one of Russia’s greatest cinematic prizes – in a scene with the baby carriage rolling down the staircase (see ‘Battleship Potemkin’). The only saving grace, if it can be called that, is De Niro’s lovely baseball bat dinner, but surely that’s something that belongs to Scorsese. And maybe a nod to Connery (and possibly Mamet for writing). But De Palma should stick to Cowboys and Indians, where the natives are all bad and the men in white hats are so colossally good they shit marble.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beerbohmtastic14 November 2011 at 09:12

    Thanks for the comment, Greggie.
    Does that mean you didn't like The Untouchables? This movie is called J. Edgar.
    ;p
    MP

    ReplyDelete
  3. Greggie, the Curmudgeon14 November 2011 at 09:47

    Yup - the rant was on De Palma, not Eastwood and the upcoming Hoover (which I hope doesn't suck like its namesake...;)).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lightning24 November 2011 at 15:56

    Not a cross-dresser and no proof he was gay: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cross-dressing-j-edgar-hoover-story-dismissed-by-historians/2011/11/08/gIQAyiiQCN_story.html?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

    This recording reveals a competent individual: http://www.youtube.com/user/rmm413c#p/u/15/4ZWERQevzms

    Hollywoodites are not historians. Dang it, Clint. I love almost everything you do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beerbohmtastic24 November 2011 at 19:23

    Thanks for the comment and the links.
    Interesting stuff.

    ReplyDelete

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