His day was made a long time ago

Clint Eastwood is an accomplished director, with credits including two top-shelf westerns ("Unforgiven" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales"), as well as "Million-Dollar Baby" and "Gran Torino."  Unlike these films, Clint does not appear onscreen in "J. Edgar," his most recent film, starring Leonardo Di Caprio as John Edgar Hoover, the legendary FBI Director.  "J. Edgar" is an excellent film, with fast-pacing moving back and forth between the end of Hoover's life and a chronological treatment of some of his experiences.  The pacing is so effective that the movie flew by, and I was left wanting more, which is nice, as Carl Spackler would say.  If Hoover could have kept a file on the fictional Carl, he probably would have, what with his apocalypitic fixation on gophers and all.  But back to Clint; he makes good movies.

The public career of J. Edgar Hoover has been well-covered elsewhere.  However, "J. Edgar " briefly treats his accomplishments and controversies. It establishes his steerage of the FBI through its infancy to the mammoth crime fighting agency that it became, incredibly surviving 8 presidents and countless politicians and bureaucrats along the way.  Without his commitment to scientific methods of evidence gathering and analysis,
"CSI" could be a very different show today.  Controversially, the fact that Hoover improperly used his position to enhance and maintain his power is alluded to in the move.  As a result, "J. Edgar" is a fine example of intelligent filmmaking; the audience either brings enough knowledge to the film to understand or leaves with the opportunity to conduct reconnaisance into the life and times of this very private of public men.

Where "J. Edgar" shines is in the treatment of the private life of Hoover.  His relationship with the women in his life (mother and secretary), is fascinatingly portrayed by Judi Dench and Naomi Watts, respectively.  His mother pushed him to achieve and to maintain an iron will.  DiCaprio's Hoover seeks her approval at all times.  No less steely is his secretary, who also has Hoover's back without fail.  However, the  depictions of the complicated and close relationship between Hoover and his Assistant Director, Clyde Tolson, sustain most of the film.  These private glimpses are what "J. Edgar" is all about, and the entire portrait results in another winner for the High Plains Drifter.