11/4/11 REVIEW OF "J. Edgar" & the LIVE PANEL DICUSSION w/ EASTWOOD, DICAPRIO, et. Al

11/4/11 REVIEW OF "J. Edgar" PREMIERE & the LIVE PANEL DICUSSION w/ EASTWOOD, DICAPRIO, et. Al....
Its 10;19 pm (pst) as I begin writing this..I just left the LACMA (los angeles contemp museum of art)..where we saw a screening of "J. Edgar" re life of FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover....At the end of the film ...we listened to a live panel discussion with clint eastwood, leonardo dicaprio, armie hammer, & the screenwriter, dustin black, modrated by charles mcgrath, former editor of the ny times book review ...clint came out eating a cookie, sat one one end wearing a tan suit, no tie, looked like tennis shoes, leo dressed in black, no tie, looking casual, his sidekick in the movie ("clyde")  played by armie hammer sat next to him also in black with a red tie (by the way, the movie clearly depicted them as having an intimate same-sex relationship & showed them at one point (after a day at the horse races at del mar, apparently a favorite activity of edgar) fighting & then a brief one-sided kiss...which started when Edgar said he was interested in a woman, which infuriated Clyde...and another scene showed Edgar's mother saying "I'd rather have a dead son than a daffodil (ie gay) in response to Leo confiding he didn't like dancing with women... ironically the movie begins with J. Edgar actively pursuing a female worker & appearing to be about ready to propose to her , but she became aloof)  albeit Leo said "its really not our business what went on behind closed doors", & dustin sat on the other end ..questions ranged from how was it working w/ clint? Leo said amazing, armie said "terrifying" at first, but great after time went by...asked about J. Edgar,  the screenwriter mentioned that everything about J. Edgar was interesting., Leo said he was a "crockpot of eccentricity" that "he lived with his mom until age 40", "stuttered" & was a neat freak. ..and they talked abt. The research done before shooting..Leo joked "Uh, I just showed up" but actually he had visited several locations where Edgar frequented growing up, etc, ..the movie itself, some of which I've already mentioned, had its high & low points. I got a little uncomfortable after a while with so much of the intimacy between DiCaprio (Edgar) & Hammer (Clyde). You all know my Christian position on homosexuality (see my Conan O"brien vid re gay wedding)...it's disenchanting to think that this guy (Edgar) who was championed as such a straight-laced crime fighter was a little "daffodil" as his mom would say (they clearly wanted to depict him as a "mama's boy". They also made it appear that Edgar actually manufactured the reputation many of us came to know from childhood education. The movie makes it appear that Edgar was behind some of the comic book material that heroicized him (ie self-promotional). The big crimes they show edgar fighting was against the "bolshevik communists" & the Lindberg kidnapping. In fact the Lindberg kidnapping took center stage after a while (they finally caught the kidnapper using forensics which so many had scoffed at, but which was something J.Edgar improved greatly, including cataloging fingerprints...which again is ironic b/c later on in history we've discovered fingerprinting is not as 100% infallible as first believed) ...but at the trial of the kidnapper they show a reporter saying, "this is biggest story since the resurrection." They also depicted various political leaders in a certain light, the Kennedys, Nixon, et.al. I only one jab at republicans during the panel discussion, from Leo, something about Bush, but I didn't catch it very clearly..he tied it in with Edgar's extremism in fighting crime. ..and that gives u a feel for the film & the panel discussion..fascinating to see good ol' Clint next to a relative "youngster" Leonardo (their first time working together...Leo said he admired Clint's ability to make decisions "without advisors." When Clint was asked what it was like to work with Leo, he first just gave a big cheesy smile, & then responded...and sorry I can't find my notes on the answer to that (by the way throughtout the entire movie they had some guys with what looked like night-viewer monoculars intent on making sure nobody was using their camera during the filming..he stood right next to me facing the audience the whole time peering thru his monocular...and at the end they re-stated no recording devices during the panel discussion..but I noticed several people were taking pics anyways). ..oh, yes, they also talked about Martin Luther King Jr...he was shown in the film briefly, & Edgar was shown staring at him on the tv with suspicion, ...some of the panel stated that after a while anything Edgar didn't like or feared was called "commie" including John Lennon. Clint also said something about the "Kennedy boys" being promiscuous to which, it seemed, McGrath smirked a little, ..and they included some suggestive comments about the Kennedys in the movie (was that necessary after all they've been through?) & Clint also added that it was Hoover behind Lyndon Johnson being vice-president. McGrath said he didntknow that . So is the movie a hit? Or will it be? As noted, the ongoing soap opera of Edgar & Clyde was a bit pathetic after a while.  Our country needs heroes, but everyhistoric figure seems to be eventually "brought down" by hollywood, although they haven't done so to Ronald Reagan (yet). For a while, J. Edgar Hoover & the FBI seemed almost "sacred" in my mind, but obviously no more. And maybe that's for the better, especially as my perspective of"justice" has changed over time, for the better, to integrate a larger sense of Christian justice (which is much greater than mere rah-rah patriotic, American justice), but I stillwould rather not have every historic American figure have their lives overly-analyzed to the extent that writers re-make them into this or that, post-humously, for better or for worse. As they say, "Just the facts, m'am". Hollywood enjoys a little too much in making sure nobody is "too big for their britches" and they surely make sure J. Edgar is no saint either.