Richard Jewell, by Billy Ray, based on article by Marie Brenner - Nine out of 10

Richard Jewell, by Billy Ray, based on article by Marie Brenner

Nine out of 10

Clint Eastwood is a celebrated titan of the Screen Trade, but knowing his republican affiliation, plus the more than bizarre conversation with a chair at one convention, where he addressed the ghost of Obama or some other spectre, the under signed is biased and inclined to find fault with his movies, such as this controversial Richard Jewell, which has caused some of the protagonists or those related to them to place in doubt some of the threads, like the notion that the journalist Kathy Scruggs aka formidable Olivia Wilde would have engaged in unethical, intimate relationships in order to get the Scoop, find who is the suspect for the bombing…

However, this is no Million Dollar Baby - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/12/million-dollar-baby-clint-eastwood.html - or never mind Unforgiven or J. Edgar http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/02/j-edgar-by-dustin-lance-black-nine-out.html , Richard Jewell is still an interesting motion picture, nominated for one Academy Award, for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress for Kathy Bates as Bobi Jewell, and furthermore, it is dealing with such a complex issue that this viewer must say that he does not have a perfect, clear cut perspective on the guilt or innocence of the hero or antihero of the movie, Richard Jewell aka the excellent Paul Walter Hauser.

On a personal note, this film was interesting for me because I had the chance to be at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, working for the same company as Jewell, who had on a shit with AT&T on it for most of the time, same way I had, though not working for the security of the premises as the main character, but for the Calling Center, where loads of money were being made on…international calls, which are free today, as you know…

Richard Jewell is a complicated personage and this adds on some levels to the interest in his story, though that makes the figure less attractive and endearing and thus the actor in the leading role does not get a nomination and the feature seems to be less appreciated than it otherwise could be…as mentioned, for some it does not help that Eastwood is in the same camp with the lunatic who makes shameful statements or even acts on a daily basis.

We learn in the beginning that though he has an almost fanatical respect for ‘law enforcement – he keeps repeating throughout the movie that he is law enforcement too, he respects the people in it and considers it the most valuable, respected, highest occupation one could find and this repetition is brought to a level close to ad nauseam – the main character does have a penchant, if not a habit of getting into trouble, be it as he enters a room with students involved in some drinking against the rules and bumping or pushing one away, causing thus another complaint against him or some other misdemeanors or plain illegal acts…

Dr. Ray Cleere calls him to his office – and would contact the FBI later to give more information on the by then suspect of an investigation – and is aggravated by the activity of this man, who had stopped people on the highway (!) surpassing outrageously his attributes, for he has no authority outside the campus and even in there, he is limited to a rather small role, which he seems to want to make bigger…a little later we see him at the Olympic Centennial Park – also called AT&T for the major sponsor of the games, if my memory is accurate – where he is a security guard and the man to find the backpack which contains explosives and kills two people and injures more than one hundred…we could mention this because this happens quite early in the film.

Indeed, though the explosion is a climax of sorts as it should be, in a way it just marks the start of the movie, or at least the intriguing, psychological, controversial part, for after he is celebrated as an hero, for about two days, with media and others praising him for saving thousands of lives, as he found the package and made many go away and find refuge, preventing a situation wherein otherwise many more would have exposed to the blast and it is only guesswork as to how many would have died and been injured, the security guard becomes the main suspect and his life is changed for good.

While it seems about 90, maybe 95% sure that he was not the perpetrator, but the Savior, there is still a five percent, maybe less chance that he has been actually responsible – at least from this perspective here – and with the help of an accomplice, he could have done it for the reasons stated by the FBI, which looked at his past, with the impersonation of a police officer, his cult like approach to the law, which could turn on its head, the multitude of guns he had – it looked like a real arsenal and maybe the number of guns we have in the whole capital here, even his lawyer, Watson Bryant aka marvelous as always Sam Rockwell, remarks on this fire power and then the grenade he has, though that one is empty and works as paper weight.

The man was strange, that was sure and he lived with his mother, had a bizarre past and most definitely they should have looked at him, also considering the fact that he escaped the explosion with no injuries whatsoever, puzzling the investigators, especially Tom Shaw aka Jon Hamm, who gets involved with Kathy Scruggs in the film version, and leaks to her the name of their suspect, causing a media furore, ‘character assassination’ and the eventual breakdown of his mother, with sure consequences for the health of the two people attacked on all fronts…

A powerful story that answers many questions and still has some unanswered ones and if most of the public would loath Tom Shaw, he may still be right in his assessment that Richard Jewell did it, even though that is a one percent chance…