Returning to our theme of the Olympics in the movies this week, we follow our look into Chariots of Fire (1981) on Wednesday with a film set some 72-years later at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The film Richard Jewell (2019) at the center of this review looks not-so-much at the games themselves as it does the Atlanta Olympic Games bombing of 1996 and investigation into security guard Richard Jewell that followed.
(From left, Sam Rockwell as Attorney Watson Bryant, Kathy Bates as Barbara ‘Bobi’ Jewell, Niko Nicotera as Dave Dutchess and Paul Walter Hauser as Richard ‘Radar’ Jewell in the Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell).
Based on the Vanity Fair article American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell as well as the book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen, Clint Eastwood directed the film Richard Jewell. Richard ‘Radar’ Jewell was a security guard and want-to-be policeman during the summer of 1996, living at home with him mother, Barbara ‘Bobi’ Jewell. Paul Walter Hauser and Kathy Bates portray the son and mother, respectively.
Richard Jewell‘s history and brief status as hero for saving people’s lives at the site of the bombing were prefaced with some of the security guard’s work history as a security guard at Piedmont College, which became known as Piedmont University in 2021. Some initial tips to the FBI combined with reporting through journalist Kathy Scruggs of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution led that conviction to change. Olivia Wilde portrayed Scruggs.
The zeal of Scruggs, the FBI officers, and even the administration of Piedmont College as portrayed in the film Richard Jewell offered legitimate drama to bringing in the legal and public face placed upon Richard Jewell and his mother, Bobi, during the period reviewed in the movie. Real estate attorney Watson Bryant, his assistant Nadya Light, and Jewell family friend David Dutchess each played roles aiming to support the Jewell perspective. Sam Rockwell, Nina Arianda and Niko Nicotera portrayed Bryant, Light and Dutchess, respectively.
For dramatic effect as well as for the ease of following the case leveled against Richard Jewell through the course of the film, FBI agent Tom Shaw feels like he was written as the combination of multiple players in the American law enforcement agency. Some facet of the same may be true for FBI agents Dan Bennet and Bruce Hughes. Jon Hamm, Ian Gomez and Dylan Kussman portrayed Shaw, Bennet and Hughes, respectively. The cumulative feeling that the Jewells should feel aggrieved by the shade cast upon them, and the story told through the course of the movie, is compelling.
That the film Richard Jewell goes so far as to demonstrate that the man Richard Jewell‘s name was legally cleared, if half-heartedly cleared in the court of public opinion, is a clear and direct message offered by the film. Some will see clear politics in the messaging of the film, which feels deliberate and mission accomplished for director Clint Eastwood. Follow your heart with whether to watch. I give Richard Jewell as directed by Clint Eastwood 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, July 17, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 