1,752
edits
Changes
no edit summary
==Hoover and the FBI==
Hoover was appointed as FBI director in 1924. He is shown as an innovator and someone who was able to use the latest organizational techniques to apprehend criminals. He was indeed an organizational genius’, and this is shown in the movie when he demonstrates his new cataloguing system to Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts). Eastwood also shows Hoover taking over an amateurish and shambolic organization that was not fit for purpose and this is accurate. He did overhaul and reform the Bureau and turned it into a very professional organization. The FBI chief did recruit only the best for his law enforcement agency and he transformed the culture of the FBI. He was responsible for the G-Men and cultivated an aura around the Bureau to make it appear to be the leading crime fighting agency in the country. One of the most important contributions of Hoover to law enforcement was the creation of the FBI laboratory in Qunatico. This provided forensic analysis support to not only the Bureau but also to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. The most notorious head of the FBI was a true pioneer in law enforcement and he saw the value of finger prints, blood testing, and handwriting analysis, as essential tools in the fight against crime and this is shown very well in Eastwood’s work. The movie also shows Hoover’s role in the fight against infamous criminals from the Depression such as Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger, which was the case. It was during the 1930s that the Bureau really became well-known and caught the imagination of the public. Eastwood’s movie shows the notorious Lindberg case as changing the fortunes of Hoover and the FBI. In the 2011 motion picture, Hoover and his G-Men are portrayed as playing an integral role into the 1934 kidnapping of the baby son of the great aviator Charles Lindbergh (1932). It shows the main character being asked to intervene and solve the case by President Herbert Hoover and helping to apprehend the kidnapper. In reality, the FBI played only a limited role in the case and Hoover’s new forensic techniques did not lead to the capture of the criminal who kidnapped the Lindberg baby<ref>Gentry, p 319</ref>. In one scene the central character is challenged by a Senator who claimed that he should not be the country’s top cop because he had never arrested anyone. An enraged Hoover is shown as flying into a rage and arresting some gangsters in response to the Senator’s jibes. In fact, the head of the Bureau could not arrest anyone because of a Congressional rule and he was not that bothered by the Senator’s claims.
==Hoover The FBI and wire-tapping==
In the movie wire-tapping is shown as another innovation of Hoover. While he did not pioneer wire-tapping he did use it extensively and in ways that were very controversial. He first used it to tap the phones of gangsters involved in bootlegging <ref> Schott, Joseph, No Left Turns: The FBI in Peace & War (New York, Praeger, 1985), p 201</ref>. Hoover is shown over time using it for his own advantage. The head of the Bureau did authorize illegal wire-tapping, not only of gangsters and criminals but also of private citizens and even prominent public figures. The FBI chief was very aware that his power and authority was dependent on politicians in Washington D.C. He knew that many of them hated him and wanted him removed. Hoover used wire tapes and bugs to monitor those he believed were his foes and who were a potential threat to his position in his beloved FBI. As in the movie Hoover, did use information obtained from illegal bugging to compile files which had damaging information on many high-profile people, especially on their sex-lives. Among the prominent people he had bugged was Kennedys, Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt. Because of these files Hoover was ‘untouchable’ and successive President would not cross him or threaten his hold on the FBI <ref> Schoot, p. 134</ref>. In the film this is not emphasised and at times Clintwood’s work seemed to suggest that Hoover was acting out of a misplaced sense of duty. Moreover, as in the movie he did turn what had originally been another law enforcement agency into something else, namely a secret police force that was frequently beyond the control of the Federal Government. This made him personally very powerful and greatly feared in Washington and beyond, which is shown very well in the motion picture <ref> Hack, Richard, Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York, Phoenix Books, 2007), p 113</ref>.
== J. Edgar Hoover and 's sexuality==In the biopic, we see Hoover struggling with his sexuality. His mother played by the acclaimed British actress Judi Dench is portrayed as a very domineering woman who knew that her son was attracted to men. This was something that was a social taboo but was also illegal at the time. In one scene she is warning her son about the consequences of giving into his sexual impulses when she refers to one young man who was committed to an asylum for being an alleged homosexual. There is no evidence that the relationship between Hoover and his mother was like this in real life <ref>Hack, p 28 </ref>. Later the movie shows him meeting Clyde Tolson (Armei Hammer) and the two becoming good friends and close colleagues. Later Tolson is show acting as Hoover’s deputy at the FBI. The two men were very close, and they dined, vacationed together, and are buried in the same plot. This led to a lot of gossip about the exact nature of the relationship between the two men. It was rumoured that they were in a homosexual relationship since the late 1930s. However, no one has been able to determine definitively if the relationship was a sexual one or was it merely a close friendship<ref>Hack, p. 28 </ref>. The movie shows Hoover and Tolson never consummating their relationship even though they were inseparable. Clintwood’s interpretation of the relationship between the two men is entirely plausible especially given the social pressures at the time. However, there are many, especially those who worked with him in the FBI who refute any claim that J. Edgar was homosexual. They believe that the portrayal of Hoover as gay as slanderous and peddled by left-wingers and liberals who hated him and that the 2011 motion picture simply is repeating lies about the former head of the FBI.
[[File: Hoover Four.jpg |200px|thumb|left|Hoover and Clyde Tolson c. 1940]]
==Hoover and the Civil Rights Movement==
