J. Edgar and the Terrorism of Film
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by editor and columnist Jared Ball
Clint Eastwood’s new movie is an attempt to sanitize J. Edgar Hoover’s dirty war to keep white men “atop the social pyramid.” It is also an apartheid film. “We get nothing of his concern over The Black Panther Party, or the surveillance and deportation of people like Claudia Jones and C.L.R. James, or culpability in the killings of say, Malcolm X and Fred Hampton (to name but a few).” It makes the case for a justifiable police state, in which “Hoover is cast positively as a much needed and tough organizer of law enforcement, a protege of Attorney General Palmer's raids against the violent radical terrorists of their day.”
J. Edgar and the Terrorism of Film
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by editor and columnist Jared Ball
“Hoover returns even in death to remind the liberal, the affluent, the White that their place atop the social pyramid is legitimate and must be protected by any means necessary.”
J. Edgar, the new film by Clint Eastwood, is a real horror film, it is an act of violence, an act of terrorism. The film's careful construction of FBI founding father J. Edgar Hoover as a flawed but justifiable hero rather than an individual villain performing the tasks of a villainous institution has hit theaters with the precision timing of a predator drone strike and with similar political design. As old antagonisms produce new and threatening responses, as new generations emerge taking their turn asking serious questions about the planet, equality, justice and self-determination, be they occupiers or decolonizers, Hoover returns even in death to remind the liberal, the affluent, the White that their place atop the social pyramid is legitimate and must be protected by any means necessary. And no matter what they say they love him for it.
And that is why so much of the discussion surrounding the film has focused on its award-worthy acting or Hoover's sex life. A willful ignorance allows such a political monstrosity to be admired. From the beginning Hoover is cast positively as a much needed and tough organizer of law enforcement, a protege of Attorney General Palmer's raids against the violent radical terrorists of their day. And true to the form and function of mainstream media those dissidents are given no context, description, or honest reflection. The Bolsheviks, anarchists and labor movement activists are barely mentioned and only at all to give Hoover legitimacy in his own desire to catalogue and monitor every citizen and then to deport, falsely imprison or assassinate those he deems threats to national security. And, of course, only their violence is real violence. Certainly the violence of capital exploitation and imperial wars are not called into question. No. Only the actions of enemies are questionable. What ultimately stands unchallenged is the righteous attempt, even if imperfectly executed, of the state and Hoover to bring order to police work and to a society destined by the divine to be supremely White and capitalist.
“The Bolsheviks, anarchists and labor movement activists are barely mentioned and only to give Hoover legitimacy.”
So for White radicals the film has only brief mention and dismissal. Black activists don't even appear. But why should they? The White radicals, like Emma Goldman, only briefly hit the screen to justify today's hostility to immigrants and so-called anti-terrorism campaigns. Goldman's on-screen deportation and the only passing reference to the assassinated anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, who are never mentioned by name only as the "two Italians," serve only to convey legitimacy to Hoover in the past and the targeted killings, detentions and anti-immigration policies of the present. Deport those you cannot kill. That completed there is no need then to even reference, for instance, Hubert Henry Harrison or Marcus Garvey both of whom were early targets of Hoover and called by him, "race pimps" and "notorious Negro agitator(s)."
And because of an otherwise inexplicable need of this film to dwell on the mundane aspects of mundane aspects of Hoover's career the film allows itself to simply run out of time. So countless minutes spent on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping - without any discussion of Charles Lindbergh's beliefs in eugenics and Nazism - along with an intimate look at Hoover's personal life with his mother and his male companion assure that we get nothing of his concern over The Black Panther Party, or the surveillance and deportation of people like Claudia Jones and C.L.R. James, or culpability in the killings of say, Malcolm X and Fred Hampton (to name but a few). Dr. King only appears as pornographic background, his politics and assassination apparently irrelevant. And the word "counterintelligence" is mentioned in the film only once but not as Hoover's Counter Intelligence Program and certainly with no discussion of that program’s continued impact. So, therefore, no mention could then be made of Hoover's direct involvement in framing Black radicals for crimes they did not commit but for which some still suffer incarceration, right now, in 2011.
Particularly at a time of expanded police and military power and the deep charm of an imperial president this film reads as a violent assault against history meant to terrorize today's audiences by reinforcing either an irrational fear of the state or an equally irrational justification for what the state does out of self-preservation. It is no mere historical drama, it is a blatant warning for today. Immigrants and radicals are to be monitored, deported, killed or imprisoned and it is all for the greater good that is the United States.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Jared Ball. Online check us out at BlackAgendaReport.com.
Dr. Jared A. Ball is author of I Mix What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto and is an associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University. He can be reached via IMIXWHATILIKE.ORG.
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What else would we expect from Eastwood and his FBI consultants?
Exclusive: Government Activating FEMA Camps Across U.S.
http://www.infowars.com/exclusive-government-activating-fema-camps-acros...
[Note: A lot of trolls in the comment section of InfoWars]
Not surprised since Clint Eastwood did batch of crap on disabled
in "Million Dollar Baby". For more on Clint Eastwood and that film, see Not Dead Yet, www.notdeadyet.org a website that I support as I support BAR. I boycott Clint Eastwood films. And I am old enough to have seen COINTELPRO at work, although at the time I didn't know it was COINTELPRO. In the mid60s, the FBI was going to employers of people who were involved with civil rights work and calling them "communists" (untrue but the Communist Party was not illegal) and one agent urging a boss "They're communists. Fire them!" and then requesting the boss not say the FBI agent had been there. One boss "told" and didn't fire the employee.
Also, see www.freemumia.com for press release and info about Dec. 9 and 10 activities.
Not everyone is Christopher Reeves
WWW.notdeadyet.org reminds me of so called pro-life groups that would oblige a woman to give birth to a child she does not want.
I admire Christopher Reeves who chooses to live despite being paralyzed from the neck down. But I support physician-assisted suicide. I would rather die than be paralyzed or be confined to a wheelchair and need to be pushed around by my spouse.
Please go to www.compassionandchoices.org to find out more about the freedom to end one's own life. We do not advocate killing anyone because of their disabilities, but reserve the right to end our own lives.
Million Dollar Baby was an interesting movie, not a great one. I would have made the same choice as the protagonist. Girlfight is a better movie about female boxers.
Clint Eastwood has made some very good movies as well as some mediocre movies and some bad ones. I have not seen the movie about Hoover and don’t intend to see it. He was a disgusting human being and I am glad he’s dead. However, Eastwood shouldn't be trashed on the basis of one film.
ordinarily I would ignore you- I'm severely disabled,notdeadyet
Based on your views on WBAI, I would ignore you...I support www.takebackwbai.org
I am severely disabled and that colors my view of www.notdeadyet.org which I support. You are entitled to your views and you can do what you want with your body. Not Dead Yet is not antichoice. I am prochoice and have had an abortion.
White-Washing Gay Edgar & the FBI While Ignoring COINTELPRO's-
Assault on Black, & Other Revolutionary Leadership & Movements...
It appears Clint Eastwood & Dustin Lance Black [screen writer for the movie on San Fran's Late Harvey Milk] is more interested in so-called 'Outing' Ole Gay Edgar- & also his much 'hyped' career as the US' top 'law' enforcer, w a few references to his notorious files on notable people & his attacks on communists & attempts to smear Rev Dr ML King [Note I'm basing this on review summaries - I haven't yet seen the movie]. I suspect the movie doesn't really come up w any 'smoking guns' about Ole Gay Edgar's homosexuality & thus is suggestive, probably based mostly on subtle innuendo.
But Hoover's attacks on & prolonged determined effort to destroy Black leadership thru-out his career from the get-go; starting w Marcus Garvey & including the NOI's Elijah Muhammed & Malcolm X, Paul Robeson, MLK, Kwame Toure' {aka Stokley Carmichael}, the Black Panther Party - including that notorious Dec 4 1969 FBI / CPD raid / Execution-Hit on Fred Hampton [while sound asleep] & Mark Clark- & the framing-up of totally innocent folks like Geronimo Pratt- under COINTELPRO is Beyond Speculation - Its Documented FACT [Note: Hoover said it was all about stopping the 'Rise of a Black Messiah' that could unify & electrify the Black Freedom Movement... This Notorious Memo {HIT LIST} called Malcolm the movement's 'martyr'- & then named MLK, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, & the NOI's Elijah Muhammed as its prime targets for neutralization!]!
And his dedication to Real crime busting is actually Over-Hyped! He made his mark using the FBI's G-men to hunt down roaring 20s out-laws who were bank-robber throw-backs to the Old Wild-West Days [IE: Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger, etc -of the so-called 'legendary' Most Wanted List]. Many even think he had a hand in taking down Al Capone but, that credit rightly belongs solely w the ATF & Elliot Ness! In fact Old Gay Edgar spent most of his career pretending that the nation's Mafia Crime Syndicate, Did NOT Really EXIST! If Eastwood & Black had pursued why Hoover's Ole 'Sgt Schultz' routine regarding the Mafia- they would definitely had to talk about his passion for betting on race-horses at Mafia controlled Race-tracks -&- Would probably had to talk about reports that top Mafia figures had Porno-Photo Evidence of Hoover's Homosexuality - Which They Used to SILENCE Hoover about the Mafia!
Eastwood & Black, in their 'Hoover' movie, could have also talked about [but apparently didn't] why Hoover, who had secretly recorded top Mafia figures discussing hitting both RFK & JFK who both were Hoover's Bosses at the time, had apparently failed to inform either JFK &/or RFK, nor hauled those Mafia guys in for some serious questioning neither Before nor AFTER JFK's Assassination! By comparison Penn St's Joe Paterno was just fired for his mishandling of the Sandusky Pederasty Scandal - even though Ole Joe-Pa DID Alert his Bosses! Thus Ole Gay Edgar's failure on the JFK Hit's Mafia connection was effectively an act of at-least gross criminal negligence & dereliction of duty -or- even High Treason!
PS: More on the Terrorism of Film vis-a-vis Black People! I did a quick google search on the movie 'J Edgar's' reviews [generally by so-called 'liberal' white movie critics] & just as Dr Jared Ball states here [again I haven't seen 'J Edgar' yet nor do I intend to go out of my way to see it] most reviews are favorable & focused particularly on commenting on the film's fake 'controversy' of hinting at Ole Gay Edgar homosexuality & curious relationship w his mother [It doesn't take a PhD in pyschology nor semi-porno tapes of his 'pillow-talk' w Clyde Tolson to figure out that Ole Gay Edgar's was a hen pecked moma's boy - whose long term 'beau' was Tolson -&- Anyone who uses his 'official' title as the US' Top 'law-enforcer' to feed his obsession as the US' Top Peeping Tom- bugging so many folks bedrooms for his own personal collection of semi-porno 'pillow-talk' tapes & photos, would almost certainly had to have been a sexual deviant], while not even mentioning the abscene of the Police-State & Facist implications [then & now] of COINTELPRO in the film! One of the few exceptions was a review in the UK's [rather than the US] Examiner on Nov 21 by Michael Richardson entitled: 'Eastwood censored COINTELPRO in whitewash movie about J. Edgar Hoover': >" 'J.Edgar', the epic biopic of J.Edgar Hoover falls short of the mark in the honesty-with-history department. Leonardo DiCaprio did a splendid job portraying the infamous former director of the FBI. However the layers of stage make-up as DiCaprio ages in the half-century tale are inadequate to cover up the censorship of COINTELPRO from the film. COINTELPRO’s omission from the movie does a disservice to the audience by deleting such a massive malignancy of federal law enforcement by Hoover. COINTELPRO was simply too over the top to ignore with its national scope and Lethal Ferocity. Eastwood’s treatment of J. Edgar Hoover by totally excluding the genuine evils of COINTELPRO under Hoover’s orders from the “Seat of Government” goes beyond artistic license and enters the world of propaganda..." < - [MY NOTE / FYI: FBI records show that as much as 85% of COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals associated with the Civil Rights Movement, including Rev Dr MLKing, & all his colleagues & contemporaries, the American Indian Movement [AIM]; nearly all groups protesting the Vietnam War, etc...]
Yet as Dr Ball states here & the above [UK]'Examiner' Article hints at- most US so-called 'liberal' white movie critics focused on artisitic trivialities such as DiCaprio's portrayal & aging make-up- while failing to even mention COINTELPRO's glaring ommission [the silence is deafening & speaks volumes] from Eastwood's 'J Edgar'. But this should come as no surprise - we've seen this type of thing time & again before IE: the failure to give Denzel well deservered oscars for his portrayals of Steve Bikko [Cry Freedom], Malcolm X [also note-worthy is that neither Spike Lee, nor Angela Bassett, nor Al Freeman Jr - even got nominated - though Ms Bassett {along w Lawrence Fishburne} got nominated the next yr for portraying that notorious love-hate relationship of Ike & Tina Turner], or Reuben 'Hurricane' Carter- because those real-life heroes were deemed to politically controversial- But then Holly-weird gives Denzel the oscar for portraying a fictional Thug Nigger Rouge Cop in 'Training Day' - as if that wasn't a politically controversial statement! The same yr Halle Berry becomes the first & thus far only 'Black' woman to win an oscar for 'Best Actress' by portraying the bed-mate / bed-warmer of a southern racist jailer [from a family of southern racists] who excutes her Black Husband! Ms Berry, considered one of the Hollywood's most beautiful women- ends up in semi-ponographic lust scenes not w the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise or even her co-star the late Heath Ledger - but w Billy-Bob Thorton! Then there's the multi-academy award nominated 'Color Purple'- which used its spectacularly beautiful cinema-photography to depict nearly all Black Men as Abusive Dogs, - or more recently the academy award winning [semi-ponographic] 'Precious'- which depicted both the Black father & mother as outrageously despicable people [Precious was nominated for best picture & director & won best supporting actress for Mo'nique's portrayal of the despicable mother]. Each of these assaults on Blackness got rave-reviews by mainly white 'liberal' movie critics - even as many/most Black commentators were appalled or even outraged! And each of these assaults on the Black Family had a not so subtle message - That its better for Black women [& children too] to be- w lesbians, with white men -even if they are racists who kill your own Black Husbands / Fathers / Sons, or be all alone- rather than to be w Black Men! Thus these are in fact {racist} social-political statements masquerading as art & entertainment - which are part & parcel of the relentless on-going Terroristic assault on the Black Family!
a good review of J Edgar
Here's a good review of J Edgar from the Consortium News.
http://consortiumnews.com/2011/11/30/clint-eastwoods-dishonest-j-edgar/
Now That's a Real Review - Though It's More Like a Commentary
This Article gave me even more new Info on just how Fascist & despicable Ole Gay Edgar was- From The GET-GO!
The author James DiEugenio not only takes down 'J Edgar' but even takes down Clint Eastwood's whole career as both actor & director. Though IMO- at least 3 of Eastwood's efforts as actor &/or director do stand out: his best western- 'The Outlaw Josie Wales'; - his best performance as a law officer- 'In the Line of Fire' [which was probably his best performance as an actor]; -&- 'Mystic River' though that had a lot to do w its outstanding cast!
It ocurred to me when reading this article, that probably the only reason Eastwood & Black even mentioned Hoover's attacks on ML King is because they Really HAD NO CHOICE! Hoover's efforts to destroy ML King is so well known that if Eastwood & Black hadn't at-least alluded to it- even the most white-washing reviews by so many so-called 'liberal' movie critics would have been forced to say something about it!
Clint Eastwood a great
Clint Eastwood a great filmmaker but He was a disgusting human being. Unfortunately, it happens frequently among talented people.
mujeres rusas, russische frau