Clint Eastwood has come a long way.\u00a0 People of my generation and younger aren\u2019t going to remember, but there was a time when there was a stigma against Eastwood as a director.\u00a0 The Outlaw Josey Wales is probably one of the top 3 if not the best western of all time.\u00a0 As far as awards, nothing, zilch.<\/p>\n
Switch to today, and people assume an Eastwood film is going to be nominated for something.<\/p>\n
Just musing over some tinsel town history\u2026<\/p>\n
Now to J. Edgar; I would have like to have seen a film that examines Mr. Hoovers career and the implications of the tactics he used.\u00a0 Hoover was the originator of the FBI and his career straddled the ongoing tradeoff between freedom and safety.\u00a0 What I would like to have seen is a critical look at what we got from the FBI law enforcement, and what price we paid, in terms of freedom, for it.\u00a0 But, J. Edgar is not that movie.<\/p>\n
J. Edgar is amost entirely about the personal eccentricities of Mr. Hoover and how they flavored his behavior and how they may have affected his policies.\u00a0 It is the story of a closeted homosexual\u2019s hypersensitive defense mechanisms.\u00a0 It\u2019s more of a psychological portrait of the man than a study of how he affected history.<\/p>\n
So, I was bored.\u00a0 What the hell do I care if the man was gay?\u00a0 And what is it to me if his fervor to hide that fact spawned a fascination with gathering intel on other\u2019s private lives.\u00a0 To me that is the background for one character in a film.\u00a0 It is not the whole film.<\/p>\n
So, if you want to see some very good actors wasting their time in period clothes and (rather effective) makeup; go ahead.\u00a0 But there\u2019s an actual story to tell that effects all of our lives today.\u00a0 And they kind of ignored it.<\/p>\n
So, meh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clint Eastwood has come a long way.\u00a0 People of my generation and younger aren\u2019t going to remember, but there was a time when there was a stigma against Eastwood as a director.\u00a0 The Outlaw Josey Wales is probably one of … Continue reading