The Movie "J.Edgar" Tackles American Political Taboos

J. Edgar Hoover (Photo from fbi.gov)

Whatever the merits of Clint Eastwood's new film J. Edgar, it does deserve attention for tackling American political taboos. His subject -- FBI director J. Edgar Hoover -- could intimidate the nation's toughest insiders. Nothing could be said about Hoover during his lifetime, except praise (often defined by the head Fed). Criticism was harshly dealt with.

Even after the FBI director passed away, few ventured into the dangerous waters of Hoover studies. The FBI had files on just about anyone who could get the public's attention. Clearly, those files included dossiers on Hollywood power brokers and high-profile actors. How that information could be used to induce silence or "cooperation" was something Hoover mastered. Even the Cold War Russians were impressed.

During the Bush-Cheney years, Americans discovered just how extensive our National Security State's "information gathering" has been. Its corrupt use gravely jeopardized all civil liberties. (To this day, the American political conservative movement, with its supposed "love" of the Constitution, has never looked itself in the mirror about its complicity with the Bush-Cheney administration's odious domestic eavesdropping and surveillance campaign and likely blackmail efforts.)

Eastwood is now old enough where a vengeful national security apparatus can't really hurt him. He's free to publicly depict J. Edgar Hoover's sexual dramas, his family life, his dishonest mythmaking, and his occasionally delusional final years. In essence, Eastwood's movie frees Hollywood from the shackles of the Hoover taboos. Whether producers now rush to make movies without the FBI's intimidating shadow modifying its scripts is not so important. In a way, J. Edgar minimizes the power of the "personal and confidential" files the FBI was fond to maintain. That is a significant achievement.

J. Edgar makes other points that won't make today's audiences so comfortable. Notably, Eastwood doesn't spare a 1930s public (and Hollywood) for embracing gangsters and thug psychology. While the point is an historical one, its echoes of our own contemporary society are pertinent. As we discovered during the Bush-Cheney years, liberty is something to be cherished and protected. That's a sentiment J. Edgar Hoover would have understood.

PS. A considerable number of former and current FBI personnel have objected to the movie's depiction of Hoover. A fair, objective article presenting this perspective appears in The Washington Post.

James P. Hosty, Lee Harvey Oswald's FBI Interrogator -- RIP

James P. Hosty (photo), the FBI special agent who interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's murder, passed away Friday in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Star's obit provides a very simple overview of the man's life and significance in the JFK story.

Hosty's professional connection to the lurid JFK assassination saga led to an unrelenting light on him that severely diminished his personal privacy for the remainder of his life. Just about any theory about Kennedy's death, no matter how dimwitted, would include Hosty. He spent many years trying to clear his reputation after director Oliver Stone smeared him in the movie JFK. Hosty also submitted his documentation about the Oswald affair to the National Archives.

That this most unfortunate FBI special agent lived and ultimately passed away in Kansas City was not an accident. J. Edgar Hoover had him transferred there one year after JFK was buried. I happen to like Kansas City (my parents lived there). However, it strikes me that, for special agents in the limelight, KC is the FBI's equivalent of the Witness Protection Program.

Hosty's life, with its suggestion of Greek tragedy, has finally ended. May the man rest in peace.