Clint Eastwood accused of smear campaign by ex-FBI agent

Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial outing with Leonardo Di Caprio in ‘J. Edgar’ has been severely criticized by ex-FBI agent Gregg Schwarz for not portraying the facts about Edgar’s moral stature.

Leonardo Di Caprio as J. Edgar Hoover

In fact, the agent took to the web and sat down by J. Edgar Hoover’s grave to reach out to Clint Eastwood and the producers of the movie about why it was not done in the proper way. While Hollywood will often celebrate the masterful directing and acting abilities of Eastwood, his latest film faces the ire of the FBI for depicting the story of J Edgar Hoover, one of America’s most important figures in law enforcement, as a homosexual, “administrative monster.”

The stinging attack by Schwarz is carefully articulated as he points at several issues relating to the film, and how it was produced to create an inaccurate story. The agent makes some strong points related to the research of the film and talks about the era, and how homosexuality was a perceived risk. However, the files of the FBI related to J Edgar Hoover according to the agent showed that a different private life existed. The agent also condemns both Eastwood and writer Dustin Lance Black for turning the true story into “sensationalism.” (full video statement below)

Often films based on true events or biopics face a backlash because facts are not accurately transmitted to screen. What’s worse is that sometimes those facts get lost and turned into drama to move the story forward. Although Eastwood is by far one of the most iconic figures in the film industry, this particular criticism of his movie should be well considered.

Agent Schwarz states in his video :

“I hope that you take some of things that I have said into consideration when you learn about the history of Mr Hoover….while he can certainly be criticized for some of the decisions that he made…you can’t criticize the man’s moral code.”

“You did a good job with Dirty Harry. But I gotta tell ya, you need to stay in the arena of acting. You’re no Jerry Bruckheimer. You did a poor amount of research and you did a poor film. But I will give you credit for one thing: You moved from Dirty Harry to filthy Harry in just 2 hours.”

FBI Agent’s full video statement

Iain Alexander

Founder - Film Industry Network

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