Watch J. Edgar

J. Edgar is a fictional biography drama produced by Clint Eastwood. Leonardo DiCaprio plays John Edgar Hoover as edgy and strong willed. Edgar has a strong sense of patriotism that pushes the government's laws as he obsesses to combat communism and other high profile criminals. Over time he grows the Federal Bureau of Investigations into the large government agency that it is today, with arbitrary rules and secretive investigations. It dips into suggestion about how he used manipulation and blackmail to bend the rules and policies that were passed by politicians. With ambition and ruthlessness he leverages power by accumulating his infamous massive collection of information referred to as “the secret files”.

The movie opens with J. Edgar as a solemn faced and aged man, sitting in his half-lit office poised to tell a journalist the details over the years of his career, beginning from the twenties through the sixties. He chronicles his significant role in famous investigations and the derailing of powerful mafia gangs during the depression era.

With every story he builds on how he swiftly rose to the top of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the strong handed fashion of his fifty year tenure as he obsessed over the threat of communism and bringing down the country’s most notorious criminals.

He conspires and pushes the limits of practicing deportations without reasonable evidence, while pursuing the trails of high profile crimes of large scale bank robberies, fake checks, and money laundering. The movie also closely examines the precarious nature of his homosexual urges and attraction for his lifelong best friend and partner, Clyde Tolson, played by Armie Hammer. In his later years he suffers from a stroke and fights to keep his legacy intact as the nation begins a new era lead by President Nixon.