Directed by:
Clint EastwoodScreenplay:
Billy RayCinematography:
Yves BélangerComposer:
Arturo SandovalCast:
Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez, Dylan Kussman, Mike Pniewski, Niko Nicotera, Brandon Stanley (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
After foiling a bomb attack at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, security guard Richard Jewell is an instant hero. However when the FBI leaks to the media that he is a suspect in the bombing, his life becomes a nightmare. Based on the true story... "There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have thirty minutes." The world is first introduced to Richard Jewell as the security guard who reports finding the device at the 1996 Atlanta bombing – his report making him a hero whose swift actions save countless lives. But within days, the law enforcement wannabe becomes the FBI's number one suspect, vilified by press and public alike, his life ripped apart. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client's name, while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him. (Cinemax)
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Reviews (7)
Richard Jewell is perfectly executed moviemaking made under a steady hand, just as we like it from an eighty-nine-year-old Eastwood. The plot is unsurprising, in fact, you can predict at the beginning how it will necessarily turn out, but it's not about that at all; Clint Eastwood can tell a human story on the screen for more than two hours, and you just don't want to take your eyes off it. Richard Jewell is a dreaming dolt and makes some huge mistakes every so often but has his heart in the right place and will definitely win the hearts of the audience, too. Paul Walter Hauser as Richard Jewell and Sam Rockwell’s predatory lawyer make a captivating duo on screen.
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For me personally, Clint Eastwood is a safe bet. I’ve always liked him as an actor, and even when he started directing, he hasn't let me down. I enjoyed this film for its great direction, quality screenplay and very good acting performances (especially Sam Rockwell in the role of a serious lawyer). Most importantly, it was another portrayal of the typically American witch hunt.
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Another finely tuned wow from Clint. This smooth-gliding story is further augmented by the acting performances. Powerhouse Sam Rockwell props up Houser in every scene they have together, making the times when Richard gets pissed even more impressive. Olivia Wilde, representing the media, could very easily have fallen into clichés, but in the end she actually rocks, and Hamm as an amoral FBI asshole is the embodiment of everything that you hate about the powers that be. In the end, this turns into an average guy vs. the government and the media battle, but it’s shot with such grace that I am giving it the fifth star. Movies where neither the government nor the media are right are always satisfying to watch. Especially these days.
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When I write that I find Clint Eastwood to be the most admirable filmmaker working today, you might think I'm mainly admiring the fact that he's still making movies on the cusp of 90. And he's doing it so well. That's certainly true, but I admire him even more for the subjects he chooses and how he handles them. Richard Jewell is another one of his "ordinary heroes" who lived through something that you wouldn't quite want to believe if it hadn't really happened. However, unlike Sully Sullenberger, who was "only" in danger of losing his career, Richard Jewell stands in front of the electric chair and, thanks to the fact that he is actually an overgrown child of principle and looks up to the law enforcement officials without bounds, slowly and willingly sits in that chair himself. The story is wonderfully scary. Without exception superbly acted (if I had to single anyone out, P. W. Hauser would be my favorite chameleon aside from Sam Rockwell) and most importantly so beautifully told, in a slow balladic manner with occasional light relief in the form of sensitive humor that both puts the viewer at ease and highlights the absurdity of the whole situation. Wonderful.
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If you don't live to see the cinematic immortalization of your professional activities, you may end up an unlikely incel hero against whom the whole world conspires, or an incompetent journalistic whore who gets to her sources through the bedroom and realizes only too late what a bitch she was. It plays into Eastwood's hands that he's one of the truly last representatives of pure Republican thought in high Hollywood, so he makes Richard Jewell look refreshingly bizarre. In fact, he uses the same methods of building sympathy as any liberal biopic, but applies them to a character of the type who waits until 10:01 pm to call the cops that there are two people smoking down the street outside the pub. By looking at the protagonist through the veil of his own sympathies and ignoring his more than one problematic trait, he makes Jewell a funny harmless cartoon character, revolving in the twists and turns of a classic movie monument, and it's fun to see how it doesn’t work for the old man anymore.
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