I actually went to the theater and watched this. It was above average.It was a well acted film. It was a little long and slow at points. One thing that bothers me is that Hollywood films on Hoover all depict him as a homosexual and a crossdresser. I HAVE read at least 4 books on Hoover and I don't see any evidence to support this. I was disappointed the Eastwood played the homosexual love story angle. I have never seen a shred of evidence that Hoover was actually gay or a cross dresser.
Same here... I would love for it to be true, because Hoover was such a Megalomaniacal shithead, but there is really nothing more than rumor
Exactly. I also think that some people are just not sexual. He created the F.B.I. as if it were his son. Btw, I detest him. As much as I hate communism, he still went too far. I also thought the film was too nice to Martin Luther King.The man was a degenerate scumbag and they basically made it as vague as possible, showing him humping a girl in silhouette. It is as close as Hollywood has ever come to exposing this fraud, hypocrite and philanderer for the complete piece of shit he really was. It did at least show what a scumbag Hoover was as well.
Yup, no matter how much good MLK did (and he did do good without question, I wouldn't deny it) he was a bad guy on an individual level... he beat his wife, he was a philanderer, he was corrupt... he was in no way a nice or decent person ... but it's the Halo effect... its the same with JFK and RFK... death romanticized them, made them glorious ghosts haunting the collective baby-boomer folk memory... the reality is that both were children of priviledge: corrupt, ill-gotten priviledge at that (Joe Kennedy was an immense crook) and both used their playboy connections to get away with anything and everything... When I hear people of my mother's generation froth at the mouth about the corrupt George Bush presidency and Bush's family connections and conflicts of interest, I am quick to remind them that one of the heroes of their favorite family got to spend 30 plus years sitting pretty in the senate after killing an innocent women while hammered in a car on a bridge... all connections were used to clear him... the power of the corrupt wealthy is not a phenomenon that only exists on the side of the street where the reactionary, right-wing fuckheads live... it's endemic to the liberals as well All that said, nobody has ever been more evil than Dick Cheney in American History...
Agree 100% with the entire post.I love bashing MLK the most though. I just bring up the facts and they are left to saying "well he did some good." So did Hitler, have you any idea how many Russians the world would have if not for his courageous act of trying to kill Stalin. I wouldn't say that is much of an argument though. Believe it or not, Hoover himself had to concede that Malcolm X was a man of profound character. He spied on him 24/7 and was shocked with his honesty and integrity.
I have often said that, vitriol or not, in the context of the early 60s, Malcolm X's viewpoints were more realistic if you were a black american than King's were... and he DID grow and change as he became older, wiser... It's easy to get hooked in to the NOI craziness... but the man split with them and it cost him his life... and at least he was capable of being a personal role model, somehting that could never be said for King
I cannot think of a single public figure in history who ever admitted that his whole life to that point had been wrong and then changed his views in front of the world. I also do think MLK had big balls. He fought White Oppression IN THE South. X had it a little better in insulated NY ghettos. Lastly, thank you for not taking me to task on comparing MLK to Hitler. For the record, Hitler was a light year worse.
I just saw it. It was a cross between The Aviator and Brokeback Mountain. Only not nearly as good as The Aviator, but just as gay as Brokeback.
i liked the historical aspects of the movie and the in depth look at Hoover as a man. thought the accents were horrible, the make-up (especially on old Clyde Tolson) was poor, and a couple scenes weren't done very well. overall thought it was ok. worth seeing, maybe not in the theatre tho
Haven't seen the movie, but I read a lot about Hoover when I was a kid.. let's see, never got married in spite of being a "family values" guy, spent all his time with the same male friend - including going on vacation with him - and rumors about him being gay have been around since the 1940s. Where there's smoke, there's fire. He was a fucking fruit. edit: I also agree that he was a complete scumbag, agree MLK was too
