J. EDGAR (Opening night) @ The Flicks

137 min – Biography | Crime | Drama | Nominated for a Golden Globe | Directed by Clint Eastwood |
As the face of law enforcement in America for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.

Amateur history buffs will find joy in discovering the many historical milestones that Clint Eastwood had peppered in the film, which captures key events that J Edgar Hoover and his agency had inevitably had a role to play in, as we follow how they struggle from their relatively humble origins to become one of the best funded in country, sowing the seeds as one of the few professionally run, reputed investigation agencies in the world.

And at times you’d just wonder if Hoover was actually the right man for the job, willing to bend the rules, and seek out advantages that may not always be legal or morally right, such as the much suspected and speculative theory of him compiling naughty dossiers on prominent people so as to bring about personal advantages and one upmanship against any leader who has the potential of disagreeing with his views.

Told in a timeline that jumps into flashbacks, J. Edgar has all the ingredients necessary for it to become a great bio-pic, and told in the way only Clint Eastwood knows how, to engage, entertain and provoke some thought into the legacy of a man who had founded an institution. Highly recommended!