Richard Jewell
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Billy Ray - Based on the magazine article by Marie Brenner
Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez
Drama - 129 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Dec 2019
Written by: Billy Ray - Based on the magazine article by Marie Brenner
Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez
Drama - 129 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Dec 2019
10 years after the 1996 pipe bomb explosion during the Atlanta Olympics at Centennial Park, a co-worker asked me if I was related to the bomber, Richard Jewell. First of all, not my last name. Second, and more important, this guy had no idea Jewell was innocent – that Eric Rudolph was the culprit. How many more people never learned Jewell was actually a hero that day? Clint Eastwood wants to make sure Jewell’s name is cleared because he believes the media was not as loud concerning his innocence as they were about his alleged guilt. Eastwood has an overt axe to grind with both the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the FBI, two very powerful entities he accuses of acting in bad faith, employing duplicitous methods, and ruining a man’s life.
The film genre about events I clearly remember is my cinematic vegetable genre. I don’t look forward to them, but after I get through it, I’m glad I watched. This includes films such as World Trade Center, United 93, The Social Network, and The Big Short. You believe you already know the story, so why sit through a re-telling of something you can recite the beginning, middle, and end of? Well, usually, there is more to it and the filmmaker shows you another version of it through their particular lens. I knew Richard Jewell was innocent, but I did not know a newspaper reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was so bored with the Olympics, she was thrilled with the bombing and then slept with the FBI agent to get the scoop.
The film genre about events I clearly remember is my cinematic vegetable genre. I don’t look forward to them, but after I get through it, I’m glad I watched. This includes films such as World Trade Center, United 93, The Social Network, and The Big Short. You believe you already know the story, so why sit through a re-telling of something you can recite the beginning, middle, and end of? Well, usually, there is more to it and the filmmaker shows you another version of it through their particular lens. I knew Richard Jewell was innocent, but I did not know a newspaper reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was so bored with the Olympics, she was thrilled with the bombing and then slept with the FBI agent to get the scoop.
This is the version screenwriter Billy Ray, working from a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner, says is true. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution disagrees. They’ve threatened legal action and appear ready to go to war over the implication that Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde, The Lazarus Effect) was a muckraking hack who not only wondered if she should plus up to a D-cup to make herself more competitive for a TV job but also disparaged her co-workers with ditties like, “I’m sorry my hot ass murders keep knocking your boring bullshit off the front page!” We watch her strong-arm her weak-willed editor to plaster Jewell’s name and face above the fold and make him appear as guilty as possible. The newspaper claims there is no evidence at all Scruggs used sex as a tool to get sources to talk and this dramatic license is an example of Eastwood’s grudge against the media.
Eastwood is one of the most divisive Hollywood directors. A growing group of critics accuse him of being both anti-woman and anti-people of color because of his interviews defending Trump and railing against what he argues is a culture of political correctness which he describes using words for female genitalia. No doubt, his talking to an empty chair at the Republican National Convention made everything he touched that much more polarizing. Therefore, even though Richard Jewell saved lives in 1996 and there was much to correct in the public sphere regarding his innocence and his mistreatment by both the government and the press, does Eastwood help or hurt his cause by attaching his name to it?
According to the film, Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) was an off-putting guy. He would fantasize about his plans to join either the Atlanta PD, the FBI, or maybe even the Secret Service. However, one look at him told everyone he would not pass the most basic physical fitness test. Eastwood drops a hint or two Jewell may have been on the spectrum. The way Hauser plays Jewell is reminiscent of how he played Shawn Eckardt in I, Tonya – all talk, all puff. Yet, Richard’s respect for law enforcement was pure. He often quotes his mama (Kathy Bates, Bad Santa 2) about how he was raised and seems embarrassed he is a polo shirt clad rent-a-cop at the Olympics rather than a badge-wearing law enforcer. Eastwood took care with the bombing’s reenactment both setting it in the exact place it happened and making sure we recall time and place when the entire crowd joins in the Macarena in unison.
FBI Agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm, The Report) doesn’t want to be in Centennial Park either. He’s bored listening to Kenny Rogers on stage, but is all too ready to sign onto what he claims is the bomber’s profile – white, attention-seeking, a loner, etc…. Jewell’s lawyer, Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell, Jojo Rabbit), engages in an on-going spat with Agent Shaw. One of them knows Richard didn’t do it because he knows Richard, and he’s just not that kind of guy. The other knows Jewell is guilty, because you know, the profile. Whether or not it is better for Richard Jewell’s legacy, his story is now intertwined with Eastwood’s. Eastwood brings his baggage and bag of vendettas and uses Jewell’s story to strengthen their narrative. Hopefully, you already knew Richard Jewell was innocent even though the 24-hour news cycle and the FBI told you he wasn’t. Now, you’ll also have to judge whether or not Eastwood’s version of the story tells you the whole truth.
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