Richard Jewell

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Kathy Bates, Sam Rockwell, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Runtime: 131 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2020

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Rating notes: Mature themes, violence, sexual references and coarse language

This American biographical drama is based on the 1997 “Vanity Fair” article titled “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell”, written by Marie Brenner. The film relates the factual story of Richard Jewell who found a bomb during the Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. After alerting the authorities, Jewell was wrongly accused of planting the bomb himself. The movie was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of 2019.

In the summer of 1996, Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) worked as a security guard, at the Olympic Games’ Centennial Park site in Atlanta. Before that, he worked at Piedmont University College, U.S.A, but was fired in that position for excessively exerting his authority. When Jewell noticed a suspicious knapsack containing pipe bombs underneath a concert bench on the Olympic site, he sounded the alarm and began clearing the area. As people moved away from the bomb, following instruction, the backpack detonated and two persons died as a result of the explosion. There is little doubt that Jewell’s vigilance saved countless numbers of lives, and immediately, the media declared him a hero.

When the FBI was brought in to investigate, the agency precipitously concluded that Jewell fitted the profile of “a frustrated white man” seeking glory from a dangerous situation that he caused himself. FBI agent, Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) revealed to a journalist, Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) – which the film claims was in exchange for sex – that Jewell was under FBI suspicion. Scruggs publicly then went to print, and the media falsely claimed that Jewell was a terrorist.

Summoned by the FBI, Jewell asked for legal representation, unaware that he was their prime suspect. As far as the FBI is concerned, the film tells a story that is not entirely true. Shaw was a fictional character based on a composite of law enforcement people, and there are serious questions as to whether Scruggs traded sex with an FBI agent for privileged information. Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), who knew Jewell from Piedmont University days, defended Jewell legally, and 88 days after the event the FBI changed its mind. Throughout the ordeal, total support was given to Jewell by his long-suffering mother, Barbara (Kathy Bates).

Almost three months after being named “a person of interest”, Jewell was informed officially that  he was no longer under investigation, and later became a police officer in Georgia. The real bomber was an extreme right-wing terrorist, who planted the pipe bomb, and he was arrested after Jewell was exonerated.

Hauser is outstanding as Jewell. In the movie, he delivers a compelling and moving performance of a lonely and vulnerable person not likely to do what those in authority above him keep trying to prove he did. On film, he is over-weight, socially awkward, not strategically or cognitively sharp, excessively willing to please, and un-charismatic – almost the perfect person unlikely to be responsible for targeted, terrorist action. Kathy Bates gives a great performance as his fiercely devoted mother, as does Sam Rockwell as his defence attorney, who felt sure he was innocent.

The direction by Eastwood is detailed and intensely mindful of the complexity and significance  of the issues it addresses. The movie tackles political corruption, media bias, the links that deceptively isolate truth from false reporting, accidental heroism, and what characterises genuine honesty.

Eastwood makes his political inclinations clear, and typical of Eastwood’s films, there are some violent scenes. Eastwood, however, is an intelligent director who controls his movies with a firm hand to make his intended points. After the disappointments of his recent film “The 15:17 to Paris” (2018), this movie is an admirable and impressive return by Clint Eastwood to form.

Peter W Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting