Washington, 1919. After an anarchist bombing attempt on Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, young Justice Department employee J. Edgar Hoover is given the task of creating a division dedicated to hunting radicals. With ambition and meticulous care, he begins gathering information on influential people and building a filing system that will steadily grow his power. The story does not follow a strict chronology. It alternates between those early years and an elderly Hoover dictating his recollections to a group of agents hired to write his memoirs. Along the way, the film follows the Lindbergh kidnapping case and Hoover's relationship with his mother and with Clyde Tolson, his closest associate.

How it was made

The project grew out of producer Brian Grazer's interest in a film about Hoover, and he asked Dustin Lance Black to write the screenplay, which went through several drafts over roughly two years. Warner Bros. wanted to keep costs down, so the studio turned to Clint Eastwood, known for running efficient sets, who directed, produced and scored the film. Reportedly, shooting took 39 days and the movie finished under budget, at a total cost of about 35 million dollars. Leonardo DiCaprio played the older Hoover, and for the aged scenes he sat through up to six hours of makeup. The role of Helen Gandy was first offered to Charlize Theron, who left to make Snow White and the Huntsman, and Amy Adams was also considered before Naomi Watts was cast. Most of the shoot took place in and around Los Angeles, with exteriors in Virginia and only a few scenes in Washington, D.C. The film addresses the possibility that Hoover was gay and his bond with Tolson, a subject that drew controversy from those who defend his legacy.

Reception and legacy

Critics gave J. Edgar mixed reviews, though DiCaprio's performance was widely praised. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute both named it among the year's top ten films. DiCaprio earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a drama and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for outstanding lead actor, while Armie Hammer received a Screen Actors Guild nomination in the supporting category. The film grossed about 84.9 million dollars worldwide. Its legacy is more modest than that of many American screen biographies, and it is mainly remembered as a controversial portrait of the private life of a divisive figure.