FBI Portrayal in Media - Movies

Movies

Warner Brothers 1935 G Men was a deliberate attempt to rehabilitate crime movies by transforming the "gangster movie," where criminal protagonists were shown as leading exciting, affluent lives and living above the law, into stories where the heroic G-Man, or FBI agent, triumphs against the nefarious criminal underworld. The title of the movie is from a term allegedly coined by Machine Gun Kelly and appropriated by J. Edgar Hoover as a name for his federal agents that would strike fear in the hearts of criminals. According to the FBI's own history, Machine Gun Kelly "was caught without a machine gun in his hands and cringed before the federal agents and pleaded, 'Don't shoot, G-Men! Don't shoot, G-Men!'" James Cagney was recruited for the lead role as the well educated and incorruptible Brick Davis. G Men was essentially intended as a corrective to the film that catapulted Cagney to fame, The Public Enemy. Just as he adopted G-Man as a badge of honor for his men, J. Edgar Hoover also attempted to re-invent the "Public Enemy" label by referring to the most notorious criminals as "public rat number one." The G-Men concept was extended in the 1940s to include the Junior G-Men film serials. The Dead End Kids, a group of wisecracking New York street toughs who appeared in numerous films, were transformed into amateur detectives, helping the FBI solve cases.

In 1952, Columbia Pictures released Walk East on Beacon!, a Film regarding the activities of the Bureau in their hunt for Communist spies in the city of Boston, starring George Murphy. Released during the height of 1950s anti-Communist hysteria in the United States, by its pedantic narrative, its presentation in the style of a documentary, and its basis in a story written by J. Edgar Hoover himself and published in Reader's Digest, the film can only be viewed as propaganda of the most blatant fashion.

Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street aroused the ire of J. Edgar Hoover who met with Fuller and Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox to express his disapproval of many aspects of the film. But Zanuck refused to make the changes Hoover demanded; as a result, the advertising for the film had to remove all references to the F.B.I.

In 1959, Warner Bros. and director Mervyn LeRoy produced a film about the FBI entitled The FBI Story. It told the history of the FBI from the point of view of a fictitious character, Chip Hardesty (played by James Stewart). FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover served as consultant on this film, which forced director LeRoy to reshoot several scenes that did not meet with the FBI's approval.

Producer Robert Evans claimed that during production of the 1967 film The President's Analyst he was visited by FBI Special Agents who told him that due to its unflattering depiction of the FBI, the Bureau wanted the film altered or canceled. However, Evans refused either to stop, or to make changes to, The President's Analyst. Only when pressure came from his studio did he change the FBI to the FBR and CIA to CEA by redubbing the voice track. Evans believed his telephone was monitored by the Bureau from then on.

A movie produced in 1988 named FEDS gave an insight into how women train at the FBI Academy. A comedy starring Rebecca De Mornay alongside Mary Gross, this movie had a limited release and could only be found on VHS as of August 2009.

Also that year, Mississippi Burning was released. This film chronicled a fictional account of the investigation into an actual civil rights murder case.

The 1991 Orion Pictures movie sequel to Manhunter, which itself was actually the first film version of Red Dragon, was titled The Silence of the Lambs and starred Jodie Foster, as an FBI Agent trainee in pursuit of a serial killer, versus not only that serial killer but also Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The film received five Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress - Jodie Foster. The movie spawned another sequel, but Foster did not reprise her role.

The 1991 movie Point Break, is based on the true story of undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah who is sanctioned by the FBI to learn surfing in order to infiltrate a gang of thieves.

The 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a prequel/sequel to the television series Twin Peaks, included the character Special Agent Dale Cooper as well as several other FBI agents, but to a more limited degree than during the television series.

Michael Apted directed the 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala in conjunction with the movie Thunderheart.

The FBI was displayed, in the 1995 film Panther, in a negative fashion as a crooked and racist organization that interacted with the Mafia to subdue the Black Panther Party.

The 1997 movie Donnie Brasco, is based on the true story of undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone infiltrating the mafia.

The 1998 American film The Siege is based on the FBI's modern efforts to crack down on terrorism. The film, starring Denzel Washington, Tony Shalhoub, Annette Bening and Bruce Willis, gives a hypothetical idea of what would happen if there were a series of consecutive terrorist attacks in New York City.

The X-Files: Fight The Future was released in 1998, following the characters of agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

In 2002 Red Dragon (film) a prequel to 'The Silence of the Lambs' starred Edward Norton as FBI agent Will Graham and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.

The films Saw IV, Saw V, and Saw VI featured three agents (Peter Strahm, Lindsey Perez, and Dan Erickson), all of them falling victim to the Jigsaw Killer.

The 2007 action film Transformers includes the FBI conducting a SWAT-style raid, arresting and then interrogating two of the human protagonists.

The 2009 Indian movie New York depicted an innocent student who is detained arbitrarily by the FBI and is tortured for nine months.

The 2009 film Public Enemies is about the 1930s bank robber John Dillinger and the FBI's efforts to capture him, resulting in his death outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.