J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisitions (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)There is nothing wrong with this documentary as a documentary. It's just that Hoover and the tactics he favored were so awful, unfair, shady, and unjust that I couldn't leave this work in a good mood.
This work consistently proved how conniving Hoover was. Still, it took more than luck to work under eight presidents. Unlike fellow red-baiter Senator McCarthy, Hoover did not have a downfall. The work highlights his bad acts, but is upfront in saying, "America let this man rise to power and stay there." It repeats that the government has at times overstepped its boundaries since the Sedition Acts of the second president. Sometimes homophobic people are the first to shout out, "J. Edgar Hoover was gay!" This work does not fall into that. One interviewee quickly says, "Hoover and Tolson were rumored to be lovers" and then the subject is not brought up again. Sources on the Internet say Hoover will his estate to Tolson and Tolson chose to be buried next to Hoover.
This work has diverse interviewees in terms of race and gender. A few interviewees had classical, Japanese art work behind them. I'm not sure if the documentary makers planned that as a background motif or not.
I do wonder if young students will get bored watching so much old black-and-white footage. Perhaps teachers showing this work could remind viewers that the controversy surrounding Hoover's tactics have similarities to the controversies surrounding the Patriot Act of this decade.

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This scathing documentary chronicles the career of J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI for more than 40 years. His lifelong obsession with communists that began with the "Red Scare" of the early 1920s and manifested itself into a mission hell-bent on eradicating anyone suspected of engaging in anti-American activities, be they actors, politicians or protest groups. A masterful propagandist, Hoover took every opportunity given him to create a public atmosphere of outsider paranoia – and his fears ran deep. By the time of his death in 1972, Hoover’s FBI had compiled thousands of individual secret files and completed countless illegal operations.

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