Eastwood Liked Hoover Script Because It Avoided Homosexuality

Clint Eastwood tells the Wall Street Journal he was attracted to Dustin Lance Black's J. Edgar Hoover script because it "didn't quite go down that road" exploring the FBI chief's sexuality. Although the director says "If you're doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality," he appears ready to ignore a central aspect of Hoover's life -- especially odd given that Hoover himself was obsessed with exploiting people's hidden sex lives. He spent the bulk of his career illegally amassing his infamous "secret files" detailing the private acts of notable people. WSJ interviewer Michael Judge writes:

"The Hoover screenplay was written by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning writer of the 2008 film "Milk" about the life and 1978 murder of gay-rights activist and San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk. When I ask if the screenplay addresses reports by former FBI employees that Hoover was a cross-dresser and perhaps a closeted homosexual, Mr. Eastwood says not really. In fact, what attracted him to the screenplay was the fact that it "didn't quite go down that road."

"As with all his films, Mr. Eastwood didn't rely on others to do his research. "I went back and read probably all the material that [Mr. Black] had read. . . . I went and visited with the FBI in Washington, D.C., and tried to find out as much as I could about people who had worked with Hoover."

"Mr. Eastwood's main interests are the workings of a sprawling, crime-fighting bureaucracy and how a young man—Hoover was 29 when he was made director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924—survived to serve eight presidents, from Calvin Coolidge to Richard Nixon. Hoover was, in many ways, "the most powerful guy in the country," says Mr. Eastwood, "at a time when America was by far the most powerful country" in the world.

"The film spans Hoover's entire career, from the 1919-20 Palmer Raids, which saw thousands of suspected anarchists, socialists and other radicals detained or deported; to the Gangster Wars of the 1930s that resulted in the shooting deaths of such arch-criminals as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson; to the wiretaps and secret dossiers of the 1950s and '60s on "subversives" that included leftists and Communist Party members but also political rivals, celebrities and civil-rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.

Hoover's name is synonymous with abuse of power, yet Eastwood seems to want to flit over that and focus elsewhere, like his "great ideas." He says:

"I'm sure he had his excesses. . . . He was obviously a very detailed guy all his life, starting as a very young man. He had some great ideas—modern-day investigative techniques [like fingerprinting and forensic science]. But he also liked the glory of it all."

Some questions: Could the writer of The Journey of Jared Price, Pedro, Milk, and the narrator of 8: The Mormon Proposition really have wanted to explore Hoover's life and ignore his closeted pathology? Or did Eastwood degay it? Or is he engaging in publicity spin, downplaying that part of the film so it won't be perceived as a gay movie? 

(Image by Terry Shoffner for the WSJ)

Comments

[Alex]

Be assured that it was Dustin Lance Black who degayed it - in order to go mainstream Hollywood and make the big bucks.

[Elliott Mackle]

My family owned the Key Biscayne Hotel and Villas, a luxury hideaway in Miami, and at various times hosted the Nixons as well as Hoover and Tolson. This proved to be a blessing when one of my cousins was kidnapped, buried alive and held for ransom. Hoover moved fast, made her rescue his number one priority and she was found and returned. The personal connection certainly mattered but also the discretion and privacy that the KB provided. As I recall, Hoover and Tolson stayed together in one of our villas numerous times. The fact that they were a couple was simply accepted and not mentioned - any more than that Nixon and Bebe Rebozo were NOT a couple but close friends. Black and Eastwood seem to be following Hoover's script, honoring the code of silence that also protected such womanizing rascals as the Kennedys.

[convert to wordpress]

Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, producer, and composer.And I like his acting and direction very much. When he was young he looked so dashing. Well this one is great information about the Clint.

[C.Francis]

Dustin Lance Black, and ultimately Eastwood, may reveal a private moment between J. Edgar Hoover and his partner Clyde Tolson. If so, and without further context, this is a weak sideshow compared to the thousands of gay lives ruined and careers extinguished under Hoover's orders, investigations and collaborations with four Presidents. For Black to worry about "stereotyping" J. Edgar Hoover on the gay issue is really funny. This pathologically closeted G-man heaped vast obloquy and injustice on any gay or suspected-gay American who dared cross him, including Hollywood's own Jack Valenti.

[Cynthia]

I was sad to read this and especially so if Alex is correct.

[Wanda]

Eastwood is not interested in reality but in idealized versions of it. Do you expect something unorthodox from him? He's a right-wing patriot. The full panoply of Hoover's character is not what he'd ever depict.

[saw see]

Eastwood's been delivering skilfully demoralizing POST American
work for decades now. His 'latest' Hoover and 'Star is Born' retreads
confirm this pattern.

Eastwood himself, a Korea era draftee who got out of going to Korea,
has BALKED the 20th --30th --40th --50th and now 60th Anniversaries
of the urgently relevant

--------------------------KOREAN WAR----------------------------

AS MILLIONS continue to suffer and die this cold winter,
it seems Eastwood himself is at least as creepy as Hoover ever was. . .