The Point Of This Movie?

it makes you think about how a person is shaped/how they shape others

Hoover had to remain deeply in the closet in that era in order to keep his government job while he persecuted others for their sexual habits (like Eleanor Roosevelt and MLK among many others).

Would Hoover have been a happier, nicer and not nearly as vindictive a person if he could have instead been open with himself and others? But then again alternatively he would not have been hoover as we and others now remember him. So there is the catch 22.

He is remembered precisely because he was ruthless/he had to be 'tough' in order to get ahead in an era when it was very hard for people like him. Even his mom was critical of his sexuality.

Tolson never got anywhere except as Hoover's boyfriend--and there is a reason for that. he is the nice one. I'm sure that he would have been pole dancing if it were legal back then.

I myself am a heterosexual woman but I have multiple hidden disabilities. My parents made fun of me for them. So I partially empathize with Hoover (yes) . In order to 'succeed' you have to make difficult sacrifices vs waiting for other people to give you things. And the world is very rough for the vulnerable. We don't fit in unless we hide the 'different' parts of ourselves.

Does this mean though walk over others--no and this is where the movie does show Hoover messing up and repeatedly. Because he is smart, he knows that he is messing up and it does impact his relaitionships--with Clyde and even with Miss Gandy. He's visibly torn between wanting them and wanting absolute control over people/their private lives.

It would have been easier only just to show him as 'mean' to everybody and every thing. and leave it at that. Eastwood did not at all have to make Hoover into anything remotely resembling a human being. I hate what he did re records. But I did feel for him in the scenes where he is upset and clearly conflicted.