Clint Eastwood, at the age of 80, is a man that routinely embarrasses those half his age with his energy and productivity. Having enjoyed an acting career in which he became an iconic ice cool alpha-male in a multitude of tough guy roles, the manner of his subsequent late career behind the camera could hardly have been more at odds with this persona. His work has focused ostensibly upon human interest stories, romances and melodramas that have, on rare occasions, veered toward the mawkish. Even though his recent Iwo Jima
duology implied a desire to explore more adventurous renderings of historical events, his latest project, a biopic of FBI founder
J Edgar Hoover could very easily be his most adventurous to date. In himself, Hoover was a divisive figure- lauded by many McCarthyites in his time for pursuing figures involved in so called Un-American activites, but also fabricating evidence and destroying reputations who not only threatened the established order of power in America, but also amassing vast files on major political figures in order to ensure their compliance.
That Eastwood should broach the life of such a person in a time of such profound divisions in American politics illustrates the burgeoning conviction that grown in his film making in recent years, as well as the likelihood- that even as an incredibly fit man- so expansive and taxing a film may one day soon be beyond him. Eastwood has certainly wasted no time in assembling a powerful name cast for the picture, including Leonardo DiCaprio as a profoundly unlikely Hoover, Armie Hammer as his confidant and much rumoured gay lover Clyde Tolson, Josh Lucas as famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann, the man convicted of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby, Judi Dench as Hoover's mother and now
Naomi Watts. The British born-Australian beauty
joined the cast this week as Helen Gandy, the Justice Department file clerk who was the loyal personal secretary to the former head of the FBI. Previously, Eastwood
had eyed Charlize Theron for the role but she is instead circling Ridley Scott's new sci-fi movie Prometheus. Now Ken Howard also joins the cast as lawyer Harlan F. Stone.
The most compelling aspect of the biopic will be the extent to which Eastwood chooses to explore Hoovers constitutionally bankrupt machinations, his Machiavellian plotting and almost universally acknowledged homosexuality. Though these characteristics and behaviours have driven many to paint him as little more than a fascist operating with near impunity in a supposed democracy, his hunting of alleged communists makes him a hero among Americas resurgent extreme-right, and his pursual and arrest of war-time Nazi spies was, at least alleged, to have been ruthlessly efficient. Balancing these aspects of a man who played a significant part in shaping contemporary America is certainly a potentially awesome task, but if there is anyone resolute to do so it is Clint Eastwood. And though the obstacles to success may present themselves long after the films completion, they have the potential to seal the legacy of an extra-ordinairy career.