History Film / JEdgar

%%* BetterAsFriends: Hoover and Gandy.

* BetterAsFriends: Hoover and Gandy.

* FBIAgent

* InsistentTerminology: "Solid Weight".

* MommasBoy: Hoover.

* ProtagonistTitle

* TheRoaringTwenties

* {{Workaholic}}: J Edgar.

* MommasBoy

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The title character. Kind of inevitable when you're played by Leonardo [-DiCaprio-]. Clyde Tolson also wasn't anywhere near as tall or handsome as Armie Hammer.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The title character. Kind of inevitable when you're played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Clyde Tolson also wasn't anywhere near as tall or handsome as Armie Hammer.

* AdultFear: The Lindbergh kidnapper is a doozy: not only is your child kidnapped, but he is an infant. Lindy desperately reaches out to anyone who may help -- the local police, the FBI, and even (it is implied) to the Mafia. [[spoiler: Alas, it does no good, as his son is dead and this trope is kicked up even more (you were unable to save your baby from bad people)]]

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Hoover and Tolson follow their routine together (work, dinner, horse races) well into their old age.

** When he is forced to admit (before Congress) that he has never directly participated in a gunbattle (or even an arrest), he starts involving himself in several high profile arrests personally. It's strongly implied he is doing so for the sake of his image. [[spoiler: The ending hints that many of these scenes where Edgar is shown arresting people may be a case of UnreliableNarrator, and that others did the arrests.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Hoover is shocked that Nixon uses the FBI to spy on political enemies. He's about the last person who should make that criticism.[[note]]This is actually TruthInTelevision - Hoover did oppose the Huston Plan, Nixon's proposal to coordinate intelligence agencies for surveillance of domestic opponents. But he did so less out of moral concerns, as the film implies, than fearing that Nixon would pin the whole plan on him and the FBI if it were exposed.[[/note]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Hoover is shocked that Nixon uses the FBI to spy on political enemies. He's about the last person who should make that criticism.

* TheUnPerson: Hoover grows to resent Melvin Purvis (who is never depicted on screen) for becoming famous after killing John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, and insists on writing Purvis out of the Bureau's publicity materials.

* TheUnperson: Hoover grows to resent Melvin Purvis (who is never depicted on screen) for becoming famous after killing John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, and insists on writing Purvis out of the Bureau's publicity materials.

* UnseenCharacter: Curiously, the eight presidents that Hoover worked for are never shown interacting with him, and only stock footage of the Presidents is used in the movie.

* TheCameo: Lea Thompson as Ginger Roger's mother, Jeffrey Donovan as Bobbie Kennedy and Josh Lucas as Charles Lindbergh.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: Hoover tries to pull rank on Police Chief Schwartzkopf at the Lindbergh Crime Scene, but the Chief isn't impressed, pointing out he has no rank to pull on local jurisdiction, and tells the Feds to buzz off. This humiliation makes Hoover livid and redoubles his personal quest to give The FBI sovereignty over other law enforcement bodes.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The title character. Kind of inevitable when you're played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Clyde Tolson also wasn't anywhere near as tall or handsome as Armier Hammer.

A {{Biopic}} of the first and most infamous director of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover, directed by Creator/ClintEastwood and starring Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio. Told in a memoir-style narration, the narrative hops backwards and forwards in time from Hoover's time as a minor lawyer in the Department of Justice to the end of his life. It addresses such topics as the growth of power and influence of the FBI, the use and abuse of power, and the assorted scandals and rumors surrounding Hoover's life. The film was released in 2011, where it initially received lukewarm critical reviews.

* Workaholic: J Edgar.