J. EDGAR

J. EDGAR is a biopic of J.Edgar Hoover, the founder and head of the FBI. It was classified '15' for infrequent strong language.

The BBFC's Guidelines at '12A'/'12' state 'The use of strong language (for example, 'fuck') must be infrequent'. The film contains only one use of 'f***ing', which would have been permissible at '12A'. However, it also contains two uses of cruder language (in this case 'c***sucker') that were more appropriately classified at '15' where the Guidelines state 'There may be frequent use of strong language'. None of the language is personally directed or accompanied by violence, but is spoken in a derogatory manner about political opponents who are not present at the time.

The film also contains some moderate violence during shootouts between police and mobsters. However, the violence is almost always bloodless and lacking in injury detail. One scene shows a police encounter with communists in the 'Kansas Massacre'. This results in some tiny bullet holes in clothes and small red blood pools under dead bodies. Other scenes show a man being kicked on the floor whilst being arrested, and two men exchanging some punches in a fist fight. There is an implied mild sex scene as Hoover listens to an audio tape of a couple making love, and a scene in which the shadows of a standing couple are shown as they embrace. There is some verbal description of what happened to the kidnapped and murdered Lindbergh baby in 1932, and brief sight of a tiny skeleton half hidden by leaves. The film also contains some mild bad language, such as 'damn' and 'Jesus Christ'. There are a couple of uses of the term 'negro', although the term is not used in a pejorative sense, simply reflecting the common terminology of the period in which the film is set. The historical nature of the term and the lack of intent to offend is reinforced by sight of Martin Luther King using it himself in a televised speech.