Who portrays J. Edgar Hoover in the movie Public Enemies?
Hollywood makes myths and always has, and I guess that’s as it should be. Moviegoers want to be entertained, after all, so moviemakers have long burnished history to make it more entertaining. From “Birth of a Nation” all the way up to ” Mississippi Burning,” “The Untouchables” and the little-remembered CIA-in-Laos film “Air America,” the facts of American history have marched off to battle with Hollywood myth and, sadly, at least for me, lost almost every time. Only the stodgiest Ivy League historian will step forward these days to argue that there was really no smooth-talking Mr. Anderson who outfoxed the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. But there is something to be said for trying to give audiences some sense where the lines between history and myth are drawn. This year’s big July 4 movie, “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard, is just the latest film that will probably raise such questions. The movie, directed by Michael Mann, maker of su
The role of J. Edgar Hoover in the movie “Public Enemies” is played by actor Billy Crudup. The movie is to be released by Universal Pictures on July 1, 2009. It is directed by Michael Mann. The movie also stars James Russo, David Wenham, Christian Stolte, Jason Clarke, Johnny Depp, John Judd, and Stephen Dorff. Sources: http://www.imdb.
Mann goes for something more ambiguous, showing Dillinger and FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) as equally enamored of publicity, equally willing to cross the line. This Dillinger is capable of brutal beatings or killings. This Hoover is a fey class snob wanting to fill his crime-fighting corps with college graduates, but willing to allow hardcases in to torture so that he can “get his man.
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- Who portrays J. Edgar Hoover in the movie Public Enemies?
