Richard Jewell
Directed by Clint Eastwood.
Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Jon Hamm and Kathy Bates.
Rating: 3.5/4
Hats off to the great Clint Eastwood who has mastered the art of economical storytelling like few other directors. With that economy in place, Eastwood manages to tell a story – an historical drama in this instance – that somehow comments on where media and politics are in 2020.
Richard Jewell was written by Billy Ray and is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell” by Marie Brenner. The film depicts the July 27 Centennial Olympic Park bombing and its aftermath. The story sees Jewell, a security guard played by Paul Walter Hauser, finding a bomb during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He alerts authorities to evacuate the park, only to later be wrongly accused of having placed the device himself.
At the heart of the film is Jewell’s relationship with attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell). Earlier in 1986, Jewell works as an office supply clerk in a small public law firm, where he builds a rapport with the attorney. Fast forward to 1996 and Jewell lives with his mother Bobi in Atlanta. In the summer of 96, he finds works as a security guard at the Olympic Games, monitoring Centennial Park.
When the bomb Jewell discovers goes off, the security guide goes from media hero to American villain almost overnight. At Atlanta’s FBI office, a two-dimensional agent called Shaw (Hamm), and his team, determine that Jewell, as a white, male, “wanna-be” police officer, fits the common profile of perpetrators committing similar crimes, comparing him to others who sought glory and attention by rescuing people from a dangerous situation they caused themselves.
It’s here the film takes a strange left turn and has quite rightly caused some social outrage.
In a bar Shaw is approached by journalist Kathy Scruggs (Wilde) of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. In exchange for sex, Shaw reveals that Jewell is under FBI suspicion. The Constitution publishes Scruggs’ story on the front page, disclosing the FBI’s interest in Jewell as a possible suspect. Scruggs makes particular note of Jewell’s physique, the fact he lives with his mother, and work history to reassure herself that he fits the FBI’s profile. The story quickly becomes international news.
In the real world, this cinematic device of Scruggs trading sex for information with Hamm’s FBI agent essentially does to the deceased journalist what the media did to Jewell.
The portrayal of Scruggs, who died of a prescription drug overdose in 2001 has motivated past-co-workers to come to her defence.
The editor-in-chief of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote an open letter that this depicted incident was “entirely false and malicious.” Employees of the newspaper demanded the film have a prominent disclaimer that “some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and artistic license.” The film has been accused of perpetuating a sexist trope of women journalists exchanging sex for information.
Whereas Wilde’s character was based on a real person, the FBI agent was an amalgamation of multiple individuals.
Frankly, the exchange sticks in the craw and hangs over the movie.
The film, if you’re prepared to block out the Scruggs controversy, is well acted, suitably tense and comes to a conclusion that doesn’t succumb to the traditional notion of a Hollywood ending.
Yes, it’s a must-see and a welcome relief from the recent flood of green screen action. Paul Walter Hauser impresses throughout, Kathy Bates is worthy of her recent Academy Award nomination and Rockwell never puts a foot wrong.
Mitchell Peters
